The Beginnings of Change: Hengesai Naruto
by Tenshi Youkai no Yugure
Summary: In a world were Mizuki wasn't evil, and he and Iruka had been training Naruto in secret during his time at the academy, Naruto will realize his true potential, and become the true Henge Master! Note: I am not that good at summaries, continued in story .
1. Prologue: The Beginnings of Change

The Beginnings of Change: Hengesai Naruto

Summary: In a world were Mizuki wasn't evil, and he and Iruka had been training Naruto in secret during his time at the academy, Naruto will realize his true potential, and become the true Henge Master! (Note: I am not that good at summaries.) Warnings: Sasuke bashing, Sakura bashing, slight Kakashi bashing, possible Harem for Naruto, good Orochimaru (not pedophile!), possible non-Yondaime father. Possible Soul Caliber Crossover.

Pairings: tentative (Subject to change w/o warning)

Anko/Iruka

Mizuki/Wife

Naruto/Harem?

Sasuke/Naruto(onesided)

Lee/Sakura(onesided:If Sakura is redeemed, she will return his feelings)

Shikamaru/Temari

Gaara/Mayuri

Prologue: The beginnings of Change

It was a fine night in the Ninja Village of Konohagakure. The weather was absolutely beautiful for the Academy Graduation Exam that had occurred earlier that day. The test covered a written portion, a taijutsu portion, a weapons portion, and a jutsu portion. The Jutsu Portion of the exam covered the E-rank Ninjutsu: Bunshin, the illusionary clone used by new genin in order to distract their enemies. All of the academy students passed the exams...

...except one.

Naruto sat with the scroll upon his back, tired from the effort he had put into learning the jutsu he had chosen from the scroll. He had finally mastered it, and that meant he had passed Mizuki-sensei's make-up exam.

He had been certain that he would have to wait until the next Academy Exam for another chance at the test to become a real ninja, which was probably what Iruka-sensei wanted. He knew that neither Iruka-sensei or Mizuki-sensei hated him the way so many others seemed to, and that Iruka-sensei was holding him back because he felt he wasn't ready for the harsh shinobi world yet. While he knew Iruka-sensei meant well, and was only trying to protect him, he wanted to prove to everyone in his class that he was not a weak useless pathetic excuse of a ninja. If he didn't graduate with this class, he'd end up graduating with people his own age, but he'd loose the few friendly acquaintances he'd made.

That was why he was taking this strange make-up exam of Mizuki-sensei's, even though part of him felt uneasy about it.

Sneaking into the Hokage's tower to get the scroll Mizuki-sensei had described had been easy enough, and his Oiroke no Jutsu had dealt with Ojiisan, though he planned on apologizing to him after he finished the test and got his hitai-ate. He was sure the Hokage knew about the exam he was taking, but it would make him feel better to apologize for using that jutsu against him.

It was guaranteed to work against perverts after all. Especially the ones that read the orange books he'd found once in the desk in his office. He had also seen a man with silver hair and a face-mask covering the lower half of his face walking around with his nose buried in it.

He shuddered in remembrance of that apathetic pervert, who'd looked at him with such blank and cold eyes. He'd felt like something small and insignificant under that bleak, uncaring gaze. Looking down blankly at the jutsu he'd mastered from the scroll, his eyes unseeing as he recalled that dark, desperate time before he'd begun his act.

Almost everyone in the village had looked upon him with cold, apathetic, or hateful eyes back then. There was no doubt in his mind that those people wished he'd never been born. Once he'd put on his mask and begun playing pranks on them, it was as if some kind of veil had been lifted, and people could _see_ him, instead of through him.

The only people who'd never had that veil in the first place, and weren't fooled by his antics, were the people he'd decided he would do his best to protect. Hokage-jiji, Teuchi-ojiisan, Ayame-neechan, Mizuki-sensei, Iruka-sensei... He needed to get stronger in order to protect them, and the only way for him to get stronger was to become a true ninja so he'd have more training opportunities.

Of course, that might mean that he wouldn't be able to train with Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei for a long time. He smiled at the memory of some of their more memorable training session, like the time when Mizuki-sensei had started teaching him how to throw weapons properly. The first time he'd thrown them in training, he'd pinned Iruka-sensei to the tree, when he was standing _behind_ him.

Mizuki-sensei had been rather amused by the unintentional display of nascent skill, and had begun training Naruto extensively in the ideal main weapon for the boy. With his skill in thrown weaponry and handheld weaponry, especially given how little real training he'd had with either, he had begun training him in the ways of the chain-sickle, the kusari-gama.

That had been a year ago, after he failed the Academy Graduation Exam for the second time...

Brought out of his wandering thoughts at the reminder of what he was supposed to be doing, Naruto began to reach behind himself for the scroll he'd rolled up so he could practice the first jutsu in it. Now that he'd gotten that down, he wanted to get started on the next one. Since the first seemed so very useful when he read the instructions, he could only imagine what the second might be capable of doing.

So caught up in his imaginations images of what the next jutsu might be able to do, like blast an enemy ninja into another country with a single pulse of chakra, the blonde orange-wearing ninja didn't since his instructor's presence until he'd already arrived.

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"Gotcha!" the brown-haired chuunin was shaking slightly, as though restraining himself from doing something to his young student that he'd regret later, when the emotional surge of learning Naruto had stolen the Forbidden Scroll from Hokage Tower died away.

"Oh, hey Iruka-sensei! I found you!" The blonde's exuberance, while amusing most of the time to the scarred chuunin, just made him more frustrated now.

"No, you idiot! I found YOU!" When Naruto didn't continue in his argument, Iruka took a closer look at him. When he'd learned what Naruto had done from Mizuki, and learned that it had been a couple of hours ago that the scroll was stolen, he hadn't been really thinking about what Naruto might be doing with it.

Iruka wanted to hit himself over the head; he'd been Naruto's sensei for years, and it never occurred to him that Naruto would train on the techniques in the scroll? Mizuki was right, he did need to work on his shinobi skills more if it took him this long to reach the correct conclusions.

"Naruto, why did you do come out here like this, and why do you have that scroll?" Even if this course of action was what Naruto would do if you gave him a jutsu scroll, he wouldn't have stolen the scroll like this on his own. Naruto had a very healthy respect for the idea of personal property. Something didn't add up...

"Oh this? Mizuki-sensei told me about it, and about this place! He said if I could show you that I'd mastered a technique from this scroll, you'd let me become a real shinobi!" What? But Mizuki would never tell Naruto to do something like this without telling the appropriate persons involved in the exercise...

Unless it wasn't really Mizuki!

Iruka grabbed Naruto and threw them both out of the way of the kunai that flew from the hand of the imposter in the tree above the clearing were Naruto had been practicing the technique from his stolen scroll. Unfortunately, he didn't dodge all of the onslaught, getting caught in the thigh by a single kunai.

It was moments like this that he blessed his genin teammate and assistant instructor's persistance in forcing him to train alongside their student when working on physical exercises. He'd never have been able to dodge most of that without Mizuki's habit of teaching people to dodge by throwing things at them. Since Anko did that too, he wondered if they both inherited more of their sensei's characteristic's then he did.

Shaking himself out of memory lane, he looked up at the imposter, adrenaline waking him up enough to see through the henge he should have noticed as soon as the imposter knocked on his door to rouse him. Unfortunately, he hadn't noticed in time to prevent the confrontation between his student, and this imposter.

"I'm impressed that you figured out where to go." the faker even mimicked Mizuki's voice!

"Now I understand!!" He reached down to pull out the kunai stabbed into his leg. In the moments he was dealing with the revelations and his injuries, the imposter turned to Naruto.

"The scroll Naruto, give it to me." The confusion on Naruto's face was enough to tell Iruka he had no idea what was going on. His heart went out to his student, who was staring up at the imposter with such a confused look in his eyes. Iruka was almost certain that Naruto knew that the person before them was not Mizuki.

"Naruto, don't give up the scroll! It contains the record of a completely forbidden ninja art! You must protect it at all costs!" Naruto looked over at him with slightly confused and frightened eyes, but he was definitely listening to him.

"He used you because he wants it for him himself!!" Naruto glared up at the fake in anger, most likely at being taken advantage of that way.

"Naruto, even if you've read it, it will still be meaningless! I can show you what it means!" No way, he couldn't possibly be thinking to reveal...

"Sh-shut up you fool!"

"You...know what _really_ happened in the incident where the Kyuubi no Kitsune was defeated again twelve years ago, don't you...?" Iruka looked on helplessly as Naruto looked on in confusion. This person was really going to break the Sandaime's law.

"Since that incident, the people of our village have been bound by the strictest decree."

"I don't remember any decree..." Naruto's confusion was evident in both his face and the softness of his voice. It made the look-alike very smug and confident in their plan.

"You wouldn't. Part of that decree was that everyone would know about it...except you!" Now Naruto was becoming indignant, and Iruka struggled more to get up, not wanting his student to be hurt.

"...except...me...?! ...Why not me? What law are you talking about?" In response to Naruto's rising confusion and nervousness, the man wearing Mizuki's face chuckled menacingly.

"What...what was the decree? What?" Naruto looked so very vulnerable, yet he really wanted to know what was hidden from him.

"That no one must ever tell you...that what you really are...is the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" His evil smirk was demonstrative of how much the bastard was enjoying this. Naruto's face blanked in shock.

"What? Wha...What are you talking about!!" Naruto came out of it fairly quickly, but he still looked completely confused by this revelation.

"STOP!!" Iruka yelled in frustration, making it to his knees.

"In other words, you...are the Kyuubi no Kitsune that destroyed the village! It was you who murdered Iruka's family!" Iruka couldn't look away from the shocked expression on Naruto's face.

"Until at last, our beloved hero, the Yondaime Hokage, trapped and bound you, in this form."

"Stop it!!"

"Since then, you've been played as the fool by everyone in this town!" His hateful tone changed slightly becoming curious underneath the hatred.

"Didn't you think it was strange? To be despised, no matter where you went?" Naruto's eyes were closed, and tears were beginning to leak from his eyes.

"If he were honest, even the noble Iruka would admit that he hates you, too!!" The twirling of the giant shuriken undercut the harsh and spiteful words, and Iruka looked on as his student's body unleashed chakra in his distress.

'It seems I was right, after all. Your behavior away from Mizuki and I, and even at times with us, was all a mask. One that hid loneliness, and pain! You were willing to do almost anything for attention, no matter what kind, so long as it meant someone was looking at you, and not through you. It was no wonder that you latched onto pranking so swiftly.'

"No one will ever accept you! The scroll you've stolen was the instrument of your bondage!" The crazed look in the fake's eyes told Iruka that the ninja was about to strike Naruto down. He had to do something!

'It was a brilliant performance, Naruto... but it was all a facade, a sham that hid your loneliness, and pain!' Iruka didn't even have to think when the shuriken was released. Before anyone knew what had happened, Iruka was on his hands and knees above Naruto, with the shuriken protruding from his back, dripping blood and tears onto the pale-faced form of his precious student.

"...why...?" Naruto was looking up at him with such confusion and distress, that it brought to mind much of Iruka's own past as an orphan. The loneliness, the pain, of having no one who looked at you, and was proud of you.

"I'm sorry, Naruto...Sorry it took so long for me to truly recognize how much this hurt you... please forgive me, for being such a poor sensei..." as his tears landed on Naruto's face, he looked shocked by what Iruka was saying. After a few moments of absolute still silence, Naruto fled with the scroll off into the forest.

"Naruto!" Iruka called after him, worried about what his student might do after all the emotional and physical strain finally caught up to him.

"He's going to take the scroll and get revenge on the village now. Did you see the eyes of your protege? Those were the eyes of the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" Iruka pulled the shuriken from his back as he tried to get up, angered by the words of this psychopath.

"You...don't know...Naruto...at all..." his voice was labored by the strain and bloodloss, not to mention pain, but he managed to convey his disgust in the person with his tone.

"I don't have to know the boy to kill him! It's the scroll I'm after now, I'll finish you later." The fake jumped off to head after Naruto.

'You can _try_.' Iruka pulled himself off the ground and prepared himself to take down the person trying to kill his student.

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"Naruto! Quickly, give me the scroll! It's what Mizuki's after!" There was the sound of two bodies impacting, then one hitting a tree and the other the ground.

"Wh-what's wrong Naruto?" then a poof of smoke.

"How did you know I wasn't Iruka?" it was Mizuki's voice again.

"Heh heh heh..." his own voice, then a poof of smoke.

"Because I am." Iruka-sensei... he was here.

Naruto hid behind his tree, wondering what would happen now.

"I see..." it appeared that the deranged Mizuki was going to talk for a bit. Naruto was still trying to figure out was wrong with the man who had always been so fair and kind to him in his own way.His behavior was so different now...almost as if it wasn't the same person. Then he heard a muffled sound to his right. Looking over, he held in a gasp.

There, behind the tree to the right of his own, was Mizuki-sensei, bound and gagged, with hazy eyes that looked like he wasn't all there, cradled in the roots of the tree, head lolling slightly against the trunk. He couldn't help staring for a moment, before turning to look back over his shoulder toward Iruka-sensei and the other person.

'If Mizuki-sensei is right there, then who the hell is that guy?'

"Heeheeheehee, so noble! Saving your parents' murderer...and for what? What happens if we let him live?" Now that Naruto thought about it, Mizuki-sensei would never have behaved like this guy was.

'Damn it! I let my depression at failing blind me to the truth! Mizuki-sensei would never have had me do this!' and because of his blind stupidity, Iruka-sensei was hurt.

"Then maybe the scroll is safe from a complete scumbag." What was Iruka-sensei doing, talking to this guy like this? He should be running, getting away from the bastard. Not sitting there bantering... almost as if he's trying to by time for Naruto to get away...

"You're a fool. Naruto and I are two of a kind." The man's voice was full of a sadistic mirth, as though he enjoyed having Iruka-sensei at his mercy and helpless with pain. The bastard...

"Two...of a kind?" there was such confusion in his sensei's voice as he asked that question.

"I can use that scroll to achieve the same kind of limitless power! The demon within him hungers for that kind of strength! You were right to fear him...to despise him..." Those words were like a blow to Naruto's mind, as the silence stretched for a moment after those words.

'So, it's true...what they all said...Iruka-sensei really does hold me...in contempt...' as he began to enter another depressive spiral downward into despair, Iruka's voice reached him.

"Maybe I do hate the fox..." Naruto looked up for a moment at the tone of strength in Iruka-sensei's voice, one he had rarely heard before.

"But not Naruto. Not the boy. For him, I have nothing but respect. He's an excellent student." The tone that Iruka-sensei used was another shock to his system, but it brought so much relief.

"...He works with all his might...but sometimes, even so, he's awkward, clumsy...a screw-up...people have mocked and shunned him..." Iruka stopped for a moment, the pained sound of his breathing all that was heard for a few moments.

"And it's given him empathy. He knows what it is to be in pain." the honest affection in Iruka's voice was bringing tears to Naruto's eyes.

"That boy was never your Kyuubi no Kitsune! He is...a citizen of Konohagakure no Sato...Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto could feel the tears of relief and joy running down his face at the vocalized acknowledgment of Iruka-sensei's feelings and beliefs regarding him. With tears streaming down his face, he moved over silently and removed the binds on the very much out of it Mizuki-sensei.

"Awww...that's so sweet! Just hearing you say that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!" The sarcasm in his voice as the man spoke to Iruka-sensei made his blood boil. No one was allowed to talk to Iruka-sensei like that...

"Hrrnn..." The sound of pain that Iruka-sensei made as he tried to move was a shock to his system. Iruka couldn't move with the blood-loss from the shuriken to the back he'd taken for him.

"Well, Iruka...I had planned to save you for last... but sometimes things just don't work out the way you plan...so...SAY GOODBYE!!" The sound of the shuriken being spun around faster and faster underscored the deadly promise of the imposter's mocking words, and Naruto didn't even need to think about what he was going to do.

He felt the momentary impact of the faker's face against his knee as he leapt out of his hiding place and struck, sliding for a brief moment across the ground when he landed.

"...He can...He really..." He kept his eyes on the downed form of the bastard hiding behind a Henge of Mizuki-sensei, glaring at him with intent to harm. Setting the forbidden scroll on the ground beside him, he declared his own intentions towards the fake.

"Keep away from Iruka-sensei, or I'll kill you." his voice was clear with his intentions to follow through on his threat, and Iruka-sensei shifted slightly behind him, obviously worried for him even now that he was so injured.

"Stupid kid...should have stayed away!! Get out of here!! Save yourself!!" Iruka-sensei was always trying to protect others that way...

"Loudmouth brat! I'll finish you off in one blow!" Naruto moved his hands into a newly learned position of a cross, and gathered chakra.

"Bring it on, you big dick. Anything you throw at me I'll give you back times a thousand."

"You're welcome to try Little Fox!" there was silence as both the older ninja looked on in disbelief as the entire area filled with orange garbed clones.

"What?! How did he?!" The man wearing Mizuki's face looked around in shock, and Iruka was staring at the sight before him with the look of amazement that Naruto loved bringing to his features.

"What's the matter, tough guy? Come and get me! I thought you were going to kill me with one blow!" The poor imbecile who had hurt both his sensei just gaped in shock. Naruto sighed as he and his clones pulled out their practice kusari-gama.

"Well then, I'll just have to come to you!" The violence that followed the assault caused a great deal of noise in the forest, but they were fairly isolated, so no one noticed save the Hokage who had been watching with his crystal ball.

When Naruto dispelled his Kage Bunshins, the henge on the fake was gone, but his face was unrecognizable from the bloody, bruised mess that the Naruto Swarm had turned him into.

"I guess I got carried away..." Naruto said sheepishly as he looked at Iruka-sensei were he sat with his elbows on his knees.

"Naruto...come here. I've got a present for you." Iruka-sensei said as Mizuki-sensei finally headed over to them from behind the tree, having woken up fully when the beating began.

"Close your eyes..." Naruto complied, and waited in silence for something to happen. For a while there were shuffling and rustling sounds, and then silence. Naruto waited a few moments, but wanted to know what it was, so he decided to speak up.

"Iruka-sensei...May I?"

"Yes Naruto, you may open your eyes." Slowly blinking his eyes open, he looked at the smiling, bare-forehead face of his sensei in disbelief. Mizuki-sensei was holding his goggles, so what was keeping his bangs up...?

"Congratulations...Graduate!" At that moment, he realized that Iruka-sensei had given him his own hitai-ate. He could only stand there in shock, barely registering the two instructors' promise to take him out for ramen in order to celebrate. When they both smiled at him, he couldn't resist anymore. With a leap, he hugged Iruka-sensei hard, barely hearing the stifled cry of pain as his wounds were shifted. He had done it, he'd become a shinobi.

Now all he had to do, was get strong enough to protect all of his new family.

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To be continued...

This idea just came to me one day while I was reading some fanfiction, and someone convinced me to share.

I'll have the next chapter out once I finish writing it, but in the meantime, you can tell me what you think if you want.

Tenshi


	2. A Gift is Given

The Beginnings of Change: Hengesai Naruto

Summary: In a world were Mizuki wasn't evil, and he and Iruka had been training Naruto in secret during his time at the academy, Naruto will realize his true potential, and become the true Henge Master! (Note: I am not that good at summaries.) Warnings: Sasuke bashin, Sakura bashing, slight Kakashi bashing, possible Harem for Naruto, good Orochimaru (not pedophile!), possible non-Yondaime father. Possible Soul Caliber Crossover

Pairings: tentative (Subject to change w/o warning)

Anko/Iruka

Mizuki/Wife

Naruto/Harem?

Sasuke/Naruto(onesided)

Lee/Sakura(onesided:If Sakura is redeemed, she will return his feelings)

Shikamaru/Temari

Gaara/Matsuri (Correction thanks to Hopemon)

Chapter One: A Gift is Given

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Naruto sat worriedly between the hospital beds upon which his two sensei were reclining. The iryo-nin medics had already come in and had been working over the two's injuries for almost an hour. Naruto knew that both of his sensei would be fine in his head, but he couldn't let go of the worry he felt at seeing them laying in these white hospital beds wrapped in bandages and hospital pajamas.

Mizuki-sensei was recovering from being poisoned with whatever-it-was that the impostor had used on him. The medics had gotten it out, thankfully, but he'd be in the hospital for a day or two recovering from the havoc it had been wrecking on his body. Iruka-sensei, on the other hand, was mostly better already, with a few mostly healed versions of the wounds he'd received earlier. The worst was from the shuriken to the back, and even that had been mostly healed. The prognosis for both was very positive, which was a relief to their student, who had no idea what he would have done if either of his sensei had been permanently injured because of him.

Not to mention how their friends would react to it. Especially Anko-nee-chan. Her temper was very scary.

Especially when the silver-haired man with the orange book was around. According to Anko-nee-chan, he was a stupid pervert who deserved to be bitten by one of her snakes for reading that stupid crap. She had told him that she'd better not ever catch him reading those books before he was eighteen, or she'd introduce him to one of her snakes at feeding time.

Of course, that had been years ago, but still...

Shudders wracking down his spine at the thought of the horrors that Anko-nee-chan could bring into the mind when pissed off, Naruto returned his attention to the shifting Iruka, who had apparently been told he could leave the hospital now. Mizuki-sensei, however, would be staying overnight for the next three days.

Which meant that he'd be missing Naruto's team assignment and the final graduation ceremony.

While Naruto would much rather Mizuki-sensei be in the hospital getting better, he knew that his teacher wanted to see him join his team.

That was actually the reason why he was still at the hospital instead of training with one of the others. He needed to find out what it was Mizuki-sensei wanted to do about this situation, seeing as his schedule would be in extreme upheaval once he was assigned a team.

While they had more then a year's worth of experience with the current one, they all knew that whichever Jounin he got would not be part of the small circle of family they had created for themselves. The reason they knew that was because the only Jounin member of the group was Ibiki-sensei, Head of Torture and Interrogation, were Anko-nee-chan worked. And there was no way the Hokage was going to give him a team.

Although, Ibiki-sensei often made noises about apprenticing Naruto to himself in order to insure he got a decent amount of instruction once he was out of the Academy...

Which was, for that matter, something that might actually happen depending on how well the Jounin-sensei of his upcoming team trained himself and his teammates.

Naruto snapped out of his meandering train of thought when Mizuki-sensei rasped out his name from not drinking water for over 24 hours. Grabbing the glass of water with the straw, Naruto turned to his sensei, silently urging him to drink the water so that they could speak.

Mizuki, being well acquainted with Naruto's stubbornness when it came to the people he cared for, accepted the water with a token eye-roll of protest. The next few minutes passed in silence as he sipped at the water, hydrating his throat carefully in order to avoid further mother-henning.

He knew for a fact that Iruka was in the room, and if Naruto started to get upset because he was hurt, Iruka would begin fussing over them both most stiflingly.

Once he'd finished his water, he reached into the draw beside his bed, were all active duty ninja brought into the hospital would be able to find their equipment. While the weapons would be considered dangerous most of the time, the fact of the matter is that ninja don't need weapons to cause a lot of damage, and were more likely to resort to those methods when deprived of their weapons.

Konoha Hospital had learned those lessons well over its many decades of operation.

Drawing himself out of the slightly pain-killer induced train of contemplation, he pulled out the special sealing scroll he'd been carrying that contained Naruto's gift for graduating from himself and Iruka. He handed the scroll over to Naruto silently, with only a reassuring smile when Naruto looked at his face questioningly.

"It's just a graduation gift from myself and Iruka-kun. I want you to open it tonight." Naruto looked at him with confused compliance, and part of him marveled, as it always did, at how trusting Naruto was of him.

He never questioned the instructions they gave him unless it was during training, or class, which were the times when a student is supposed to ask questions anyway.

"I'll come back by to visit soon, Mizuki-sensei," Naruto said, putting aside his curiosity over the scroll that Mizuki-sensei had given him, glancing at the stirring Iruka as he headed for the door in order to go meet with his other teachers before it was the end of the morning.

No matter how much he wanted to confirm for himself that his wounded sensei were safe, he had training sessions to get to, and he couldn't afford to be late.

Anko-nee-chan was far too fond of throwing things for him to risk being late to her training session, no matter what his excuse.

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Staying in the shadows as he got closer to the location where his target would be at this time of day, he snuck closer to object of his efforts. Soon, very soon, he will have succeeded in a task that he'd been working toward for years, one that ninja far older, braver, and wiser than he had failed to accomplish...

"You know that I can see you, don't you Naru-chan?"

And apparently he was not yet any better then them.

Turning around to face the look of amusement on his only female instructor's face, he sheepishly began scratching the back of his head in a nervous habit that Ibiki-sensei had yet to break him of. Possibly because it was something that lots of people knew about him, and they weren't supposed to be in contact with impressionable children.

Something about breaking their minds and changing them into analytical, mind-breaking sadists with unholy appetites for blood.

Anko personally thought it was just an excuse to keep them from spreading their skills so that the Council didn't have to worry about there being any future Snake Masters, or really good psycho-analysts that could make you feel like a worthless disgrace of a human being just by having a single conversation with you.

It was really too bad the Council didn't have the power to officially order them to not train people. Then Naru-chan wouldn't have learned all those interesting things that they'd taught him just to spite the people who wanted to keep the determined little brat down.

Not to mention she'd have been incredibly bored without someone to teach things to who was so very impressionable.

Looking at the little genin-candidate before her, she felt an upsurge of pride that she hid very carefully behind her usual blood thirsty grin.

"So, you ready for your graduation gift from your wonderful and loving Anko-nee-sama, my dear Naru-chan?" the kid smiled at her shyly in response to her much expected teasing, having spent more then a year getting used to her antics when it came to interacting with people.

"Yes, oh great and wise Mistress of Dango." he was getting much better, he managed to deliver that retort with a completely straight face and no hesitation. When she'd first started teaching him the fine art of conversation, as she so sneakily referred to her method of getting under people's skin simply by talking to them, he'd of needed a moment to gather his idea of statement, and collapsed in fits of giggling halfway through its delivery.

She was glad she'd chosen him for this honor she was about to bestow. The sanctimonious little group of control freaks were not going to be pleased that it was being passed on to yet another generation, but she would rather they mind their own business.

Naruto was her chosen protege, her little brother. And she was going to make certain that he had help at his disposal when he needed it now that he was able to go on missions outside the village when he became a genin.

Leading him further into the woods, to a large clearing that had once been used for a very similar purpose between herself and the man she once called sensei, Anko prepared to do something that she'd never thought she'd do.

She was going to have Naruto sign the Serpent Summoning Contract.

"All right, Naru-chan. This here is the Serpent Contract. The Contract that allows me to summon members of the serpent clan by sacrificing my chakra and a little blood to call one of them in order to do something for me."

"Why is it... wait. You want me to sign the contract? You think I'm ready for something like that?" Naruto's disbelief and honest surprise were very gratifying to Anko, who had had to more then once deal with people who seemed to have these strange notion that the world owed them something.

"Yes. After all, you've become not quite so pathetic over the last year, Naru-chan. Who knows, maybe having a summon will give you that extra bit you need to stop being pathetic entirely?" The look he gave her in that moment was one that she couldn't adequately describe, but it made her feel good, for some reason. Like this kid was really going places. Possibly places no other had been before.

She watched with a small amount of pride as he nicked his thumb and wrote his name on the scroll that she'd brought there for that very purpose. She'd summoned the snake in charge of the contract and convinced it to allow her apprentice to sign, as she was a snake summoner and thought that her student should be one as well.

Now that he'd signed the contract, it was a simple manner of showing him the handseals and watching him attempt it for the very first time.

Of course, knowing his luck, he'll either get a baby snakelet, or he'll end up with...

"Very good Naru-chan, you can follow directions." The glare he gave her just made her smirk more, as his responsiveness always amused her.

"Now, these are the seals you need to perform for the Summoning technique, better known as the Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Demonstrating the requisite handseals at her usual speed, knowing Naruto's eyes would keep up because of the training Ibiki-kun had been drilling into him on attention to detail and memorization, she summoned the serpent who guards the contract and returned it. Naruto gave the pair of them his undivided attention, while the serpent seemed completely unconcerned with this new potential summoner.

Really, it was just waiting to see what the kid could do. The serpent dismissed itself, and Naruto began the handseals, having re-nicked his thumb for the blood sacrifice to accompany the expended chakra. With a shout, he slammed his hand onto the ground.

The smoke that arouse from the summoning was tremendous, and Anko realized that her apprentice had, in fact, done what she thought he might.

Uzumaki Naruto, twelve year old genin hopeful, future Hokage in his own words, had summoned...

"What the hell am I doing here, Anko?"

...Manda.

Wordlessly, knowing that an explanation would wait until the boy had been tested for suitability for the right to summon the great serpent boss, she gestured to Naruto-kun. Saying in body language what she couldn't bear to say aloud. The giant green-eyed serpent looked up at the little gaki standing on his head, before snorting derisively.

"You expect me to believe this child had the power to someone as powerful as I? Very well, if he wants to summon the serpents, he can either pay me the sacrifices I desire, or he can take my challenge." The giant serpent seemed to be waiting for the same answer he had always gotten.

After all, Manda demanded sacrifices in exchange for his summoning; most people were genuinely terrified of what kind of challenge he would hold as being worth many years of sacrifices.

Anko knew what Naruto would choose, and while it worried her, she couldn't be more proud of him.

"I will take your challenge, Manda-sama, in order to prove myself worthy of summoning your kind." His voice didn't waver in the least, which eased Anko's mind about his chances at succeeding in the Serpent's Challenge.

"Are you sure, little brat? If you fail, I may eat you depending on how badly you suck."

Naruto's eyes hardened with resolve, and he told Manda something that Anko knew would be repeated by many one day.

"I never go back on my word, that is my way of the ninja."

Thank kami they'd managed to break him of saying 'believe it!' She didn't know if Manda would have refrained from eating him on principle.

He couldn't stand loud little repetitive brats.

"Is that so?" Manda's tone sent shivers down her spine, it was way too pleased.

"Then we'll begin the challenge now, little human, to see if you are worthy of working with the clan of serpents." He set Naruto down on the ground, and wound his coils around him in a full circle.

He then lowered his head to look into Naruto's eyes.

"Until the sun has set, you must remain silent. You cannot scream, and you cannot pass out. No matter what it is you see." The seriousness of the situation was obviously impressed upon her apprentice, because she didn't hear him respond, but Manda looked somewhat pleased, as if he had answered.

"Now we'll begin."

And with those sibilant words, the Serpent's Challenge began. Anko leaned back against a tree and kept her eyes on the giant boss summon in front of her.

There was no way she was going anywhere while Naruto was undergoing multiple illusions of his own torture and death brought on by the Serpent's gaze.

It had been going on for hours, and each vision was more horrifically detailed then the last. He'd started feeling the phantom pains hours ago, becoming more and more susceptible to the terrible illusion that is induced by meeting a hunting serpent's gaze.

Their prey is paralyzed with terror as the hypnotic gaze of the graceful reptile reveals the manifold ways in which they can die.

Humans, as a more sentient being with higher brain function, was particularly susceptible to the power of the serpent's gaze. Their own imaginations' work against them, aiding in the creation of the horrifying illusions of the ways they can die.

It was for this reason that not many chose to undergo the Serpent Contract's challenge to get the rights to summon without additional price then chakra and blood.

Most people just can't handle seeing what subjectively feels like days, or even years, of their own death, carried out in various gruesome and decidedly graphic manners.

At first it had started out small, the giant serpent around him had simply crushed him within his coils, a painful but quick death.

Then he'd been bitten by poisonous serpents, and their venom had wracked his body with never ending fires of torment as it attacked his nervous system.

He'd been swallowed whole and slowly suffocated and crushed by the powerful throat of a large serpent, broken strangulation via serpent's coils, held in place as corrosive venom was dripped upon him by a serpent's fangs.

And still he did not scream.

In moments like this he could only be grateful to Iruka-sensei, who made up for his lack of high-powered ninjutsu, and lower physical strength, by mastering any and everything there was to learn about genjutsu.

And while the visions being induced by the serpent's gaze were terrifying in their own right, Iruka-sensei had made very sure that he was able to sense when he was in an illusion. And how to avoid giving in to the illusions even if you could not break out of them.

Those lessons were doing him in very good stead right now, as the illusions induced by staring into Manda's eyes were some of the most traumatizing things he'd ever seen.

And people wondered were Orochimaru had learned the trick of making people see their own death when they met his eyes.

However, even he, with all his willpower and determination, with his nindo of never going back on his words, was beginning to falter.

Naruto was close to his breaking point, and he knew it. One of things all of his sensei's had insisted on was being honest with himself, so that he did not over or under-estimate himself when he went on missions and got into the inevitable eventual battles with enemy ninja.

He wouldn't be able to keep silent much longer, the accumulated mental pain was getting to be too much. If this didn't end soon he was going to scream...

And as soon as he thought that, the images were gone.

Naruto blinked for a moment, not quite processing what had happened. It came back to him, however, when Manda began speaking.

"Very impressive brat. You made it all the way to sunset without screaming." He sounded grudgingly impressed, as though he hadn't thought it possible for a mere child to withstand multiple hours of watching and feeling their own death.

"Since you managed to fulfill the required objective, you've now earned the right to summon myself and my clan. However..." his voice got very ominous as he made a dramatic pause.

"If you do summon me, you better make sure its worth my time." And with that, the serpent boss pulsed his chakra into Naruto, causing a faint burning sensation in his eyes and on his left forearm.

And without further ado, the massive purple and black serpent dispersed into smoke, leaving sensei and student in stunned silence within the clearing.

Anko walked up to him as he looked ahead, slowly coming back to himself after the hugely disorienting sensation of having the serpent's chakra in his body, for however short a time it had been. He finished coming back to his senses enough to look himself over and see what the Boss Summon might have done.

Knowing that it was damned near impossible to look at your own eyes without some kind of bizarre Kekkai Genkai, he looked down at the arm Manda had sent his chakra into.

There, on his arm, was a stylized serpent tattoo in stark black, twining around his arm like some kind of tribal symbol.

"That looks like the one that's on Orochimaru's arm..." then she glanced up at his eyes and gasped.

"What's wrong, Anko-sensei?" When she didn't answer him, he began to grow concerned. However, Anko didn't remain impassive for long, and dragged him over to a very still pond. When they reached it, she pointed at the water and waited for him to look. Unwilling to disobey her when she was acting like this, he obediently looked down into the water. Unbidden, a similar gasp rose in his own throat.

There, in the water, was reflected his face. More specifically, his eyes. His purple lined eyes that had slit pupils.

It looked like he had tattooed purple eye liner on his eyelid, not covering the whole thing, or even extending passed it on either side, but it was definitely noticable.

It was almost as if he had painted a strip of indigo on each of his eyes.

It had the noticeable effect of making the bright cerulean of his eyes stand out more, and somehow added a regal quality to his features, though how that could be, he didn't know.

"What does this mean, Anko-sensei?" He looked away from his reflection to search his sister's eyes for the answer to this new mystery. She looked somewhat uncertain herself.

"I think it's a sign of Manda's acceptance of you as a summoner. That man's is similar, but in a different shade of purple, and its far longer." She sighed, looking frustrated.

"I think we'll just have to wait and see."

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Since it was already so late, Naruto decided to head over to Ichiraku's for dinner, hoping the ramen would aid him in contemplating this latest development in his life.

He knew that it was something different, because he had taken a shower at his home to get rid of the stench of the sweat that had accumulated during the hours long test to become an official Summoner, and neither the summoning tattoo on his arm nor his new "eye liner" would wash off. They were very literally permanent.

Fortunately, he hadn't gone to get his picture taken for his ninja registration yet, or he'd have to go through it again now that his appearance had gained two very distinct additions.

On the plus side, he could not wear orange any longer, as it clashed too much with them, meaning he could claim that someone had made him change his cloths. Most people in his class would readily accept that excuse without further comment, seeing as how most of them either don't care, or would have made him change it anyway.

Now he was wearing dark blue pants and tank top over a long sleeve fishnet shirt with black bandages wrapped around his forearms and ankles to keep his pants from catching on anything. He had his weapon pouch on the right side of his back and his shuriken pouch tied around his left thigh. His hitai-ate was on his forehead, proudly declaring his allegiance to the leaf village.

Inside his pouch was the scroll that Mizuki-sensei had given him earlier that day, which he had finally gotten around to opening after he finished cleaning himself up in his run down home.

It turned out to be a storage scroll that would hold ten things, and one of the slots had already been filled. Sealed away inside his new storage scroll, had been a very well-crafted and beautiful kusari-gama. A real kusari-gama, not one meant for someone in training to learn how to wield the dangerous weapon, but one meant for battle.

In their own ways, his two sensei had been telling him that they were proud of him, and thought that he was ready to handle the realities of being a ninja.

He smiled slightly at the thought as he slurped down more of his ramen, having placed his order on auto-pilot, since he did it so often.

He couldn't wait to practice with his new weapon, but it was already getting too late for any decent training to be done.

Perhaps tomorrow after his picture session, and his training session with his other three sensei. They'd want to see what had happened after his surprise from Anko-nee-chan, who had warned them that she was going to give Naruto something big for finally managing to graduate.

He smiled, looking up at the ceiling as he ordered another bowl.

He could hardly wait for tomorrow.

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Well, this is chapter two, and I managed to introduce some things that will become fairly important later, as well as mess with what Naruto looks like!

Go me!

Oh, and for clarification on what Naruto's eye markings look like, look at either Sango's or Sesshoumaru's from InuYasha, only in Indigo.

I apologize for the delay in updating, but school was getting in the way of my writing time.

Next Chapter: Ibiki, Konohamaru, and meeting Team 7!


	3. Many Meetings

The Beginnings of Change: Hengesai Naruto

Summary: In a world were Mizuki wasn't evil, and he and Iruka had been training Naruto in secret during his time at the academy, Naruto will realize his true potential, and become the true Henge Master! (Note: I am not that good at summaries.) Warnings: Sasuke bashin, Sakura bashing, slight Kakashi bashing, possible Harem for Naruto, good Orochimaru (not pedophile!), possible non-Yondaime father. Possible Soul Caliber Crossover

Pairings: tentative (Subject to change w/o warning)

Anko/Iruka

Mizuki/Wife

Naruto/Harem?

Sasuke/Naruto(onesided)

Lee/Sakura(onesided:If Sakura is redeemed, she will return his feelings)

Shikamaru/Temari

Gaara/Matsuri

Chapter Two: Many Meetings

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Naruto looked at himself in the mirror as he prepared for his picture for the shinobi file that would be entered into the Konoha archives. He thought he looked like a serious ninja, but he couldn't help worrying that no one would accept his change from his orange jumpsuit.

Hokage-jii-san would accept his explanation about Iruka-sensei forcing the change, but there was no way around explaining his new eye adornments. Hopefully, his newly acquired summon ability would not be too out of character for him.

Looking down at his short dark blue tank top that revealed his fishnet covered abdomen and arms, he couldn't help but feel slightly exposed. After all the years of wearing an orange jumpsuit, his long-sleeve fishnet midriff-bearing tank combo seemed so revealing. Fortunately, he had the black bandages on his forearms to prevent anyone from seeing his new summoning tattoo. His dark blue pants were bound at the ankles with more black bandages in order to prevent anyone from commenting on the ones on his forearms. Not that he actually expected comments, he thought as he wrapped the wide black cloth belt around his waist, partly to hold up his pants, and partly to hold his equipment pouch on the right side of his back. His shuriken holster was on his left thigh, bound on top of some bandages. His blue sandals were already on his feet, and his hitai-ate was tied upon his forehead properly, the way all six of his wonderful sensei wore theirs.

Putting all of it together, you saw a reasonably capable new shinobi, dressed appropriately for their new job instead of wearing some unreasonably eye-catching color that was guaranteed to get them caught and killed on their first mission outside the village.

He almost considered putting the orange jumpsuit on over it, since he knew that there would be many boring as hell D-rank missions before he ever got to leave the gates of Konoha to go on a C-ranked mission, but decided against it. While it would camouflage his personality and the truly toned state of his body, it wouldn't help him in the least as far as getting respect from those he would work with for the rest of their lives as his peers.

Not to mention the trouble he could cause for his teammates on a mission if they didn't have some idea of what he could actually do.

Still...there was his long standing reputation of being a completely useless dobe, who's only ability seemed to be his loudness. And his sheer bloody minded stubbornness when it came to being Hokage was known by everyone in the village, as he proclaimed many times.

Therefore the change in his cloths may not actually be that strange, especially if he claimed that Iruka-sensei had helped him choose his new cloths, some more in keeping with his new rank.

Yeah, that really would work. Looks like his strategy and intelligence training sessions really were paying off. Naruto smiled in a slightly sinister way.

He'd have to tell Ibiki-sensei the good news. Perhaps he'd be given permission to make use of his skills now that he was officially a ninja. That would give him something interesting to use in proving he wasn't just a prankster...

Naruto shook himself out of his musings when he noticed that he only had ten minutes to get to his photo session for the ninja yearbook. As he ran out the door and locked it behind him, he couldn't help but feel grateful that he had already geared up completely before he stood before the mirror.

If he hadn't, he would of had to go back to his apartment after the photo session, and he would have been late meeting with Ibiki-sensei.

He didn't want to be late for Ibiki-sensei's session. Bad things happened to people who were late when meeting Ibiki-sensei.

Doing his best to control the shivers that racked his form at the thought of Ibiki-sensei's "punishments" for being late to training. As he said:

"It is better that you learn not to be late now, then when it actually matters later."

Which is why when he reached the photo area five minutes before his appointment, he let out a relieved breath. Ibiki-sensei's aversion therapy was more effective then almost anything. Although, Iruka-sensei's lectures and Anko-sensei's punishments were equally memorable, Ibiki-sensei was much better at making the lesson stick the way he wanted it to.

Thank the Kami that none of his other sensei had thought to ask how to make something stick in the same way, or he might have gone utterly mad. Managing to hide exactly how frightening that idea actually was, he went out to sit for his photo when the camera-man called his name. Setting himself on the stool, he looked forward and waited for his picture to be taken.

"Hey, you sure you want that make-up on your face for this? It is the only one you get until next year after all." the grumpy looking man next to the camera said as he moved about fiddling with the machine. Naruto smirked lightly before sending his face back to neutral.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Let's just get this over with already." The man said something under his breath along the lines of "all right, its your choice..." then the flash went off, which made him want to close his eyes or throw a senbon, but thankfully he had much better self control then that.

Now he just had to meet with the Hokage over whether or not he needed to do a retake of his picture or not...

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Naruto sat in front of the Hokage as he stared at the photo intently, most likely making some kind of connection his mind between his new outfit and his new eye adornments. Now, whether or not he managed to connect his different colored and shaped adornments to his old student's was the question that Naruto did not look forward to learning the answer to at the moment.

Unfortunately, he knew that it was not his decision whether or not Hokage-ojii-san made the connection, and thus he would just have to deal with the consequences of his actions.

"Naruto..." the quiet tone in the Hokage's voice was not helping Naruto's paranoia at all.

"Yes, ojii-san?" He grinned at the Hokage with his eyes closed, sure signs to anyone that knew him that he was hiding something.

"When did you get those marks on your eyes?" Taking a deep breath and remembering what Anko-sensei said about the Hokage being allowed to know about what was going on, Naruto divulged what had happened yesterday.

Sarutobi's eyebrow rose as he listened to the extraordinary tale of what one ostracized young ninja had done to help someone even more hated then she was.

"Let me see if I have this straight," the Hokage started slowly as he continued to process what Naruto had revealed about training with the former apprentice of one of his favorite students. "You were permitted to sign the Serpent Contract, and decided to take the test to prove your worth to the Boss Summon Manda rather then be forced to offer sacrifices every time you find it necessary to call upon hid aid?"

Naruto nodded, expression slightly guarded as he warily watched his expression for signs of how he was taking this. Sarutobi continued as if he didn't notice exactly how deeply Naruto had been hurt by the actions and behavior of the villagers toward the young Jinchuuriki.

"And you succeeded in completing the challenge, so Manda gave you a summoning tattoo on your arm, as well as the eye-markings and change to your pupils." Naruto nodded again, newly serpentine eyes watching him with slightly less wariness at the lack of overt bad reaction to the changes in his adoptive grandson.

"Why didn't I learn of this yesterday?" Naruto shifted uneasily in his seat, for reasons Sarutobi couldn't detect yet.

"Because the test ended at sundown, and I was too tired to explain then. Anko-sensei said she would leave a report on your desk explaining what had occurred." Slightly alarmed that he might have lost some of his paperwork, Sarutobi dismissed Naruto, promising that they would discuss this more later.

Once he was outside Hokage-jii-san's office, Naruto let out the breath he was holding. At least the old man had accepted his brief explanation of what had happened without too many questions. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Naruto took off at a dead run towards the training ground most favored by Morino Ibiki.

He only had three minutes to get there before Ibiki-sensei decided he was late and needed to go through another round of "dodge the question."

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Morino Ibiki is a name not well known by anyone under the rank of Jounin within Konohagakure, and mentioned only in the most hushed of whispers outside of it. His methods were considered the stuff of nightmares, because he could break almost anyone in the elemental nations, it was said.

Even nukenin feared to attack Konoha because of the chance they might end up in his hands.

However, one of the little known things about Morino Ibiki is his soft spot for children. Another is his tendency to do his best to make sure any child that happens to come under his wing is safe, and trained well enough to keep themselves that way.

Which is why he was currently standing in the middle of a training field, eyes on his watch as he waited with utmost calm for his secret student to arrive.

Uzumaki Naruto had come to his attention when he noticed the strange behavior exhibited by his good friend Mitarashi Anko and her former teammates. He had investigated what was going on, and after a while followed her to one of the training sessions between the two of them. He had been rather astonished to see his rude and abrasive friend doing her best to instruct the child in the movements of the taijutsu she had learned from her hated sensei. After watching her lead the exhausted child to a fallen log to sit down and rest, solely to make sure he didn't hurt himself, Ibiki came to a decision.

Once the boy had left, he had confronted Anko about her activities. Once he had proven his trustworthiness and had the whole thing explained to him, he offered his services in teaching the boy things that ninja needed to know.

These sessions had been ongoing ever since.

One minute before the deadline he'd set for this meeting, Naruto entered the clearing, coming to a stop in front of him, short of breath but quickly normalizing after the strain of running from the Hokage tower to the training ground.

Ibiki took in his student's new look with an unchanging expression, and his student waited in stoic silence that had been trained into him by this very ninja to be acknowledged by his sensei before he tried to speak. Ibiki could only feel pride as he witnessed the full effect of their training on the boy.

He'd once thought Naruto to be a security risk, after all, the kid had a legitimate reason to despise the village in its entirety, and he'd never met Naruto in person. He'd decided to offer to train the child, in order to discover his personality and ascertain his threat level to Konoha. For the first three months he managed to hold on to his suspicions, telling himself that all this could be another mask, another trick used to hide his real character. And yet, in the end, he came to realize that Naruto was doing his best to open up for his sensei. That Naruto was truly loyal to the ideal of Konoha, to the principles of the Will of Fire.

That's why Ibiki knew, as all his sensei did, and would, that he would one day be the greatest ninja Konoha had ever produced. That he would defend this village against every foe.

Even if the council decided not to let him become Hokage.

Ibiki pulled himself out of his mental train of thought to find Naruto looking up at him with slight suspicion, glancing around the clearing with newly slitted eyes. Ibiki would have taken him for an imposter if Anko hadn't warned him and the others of Naruto's encounter with the Serpent Boss Manda, and the impression he managed to make on the ancient and sadistic creature.

Though the being certainly knew its stuff when it came to psychology, just as all snakes seem to.

Ibiki had to wonder at the different color and shape of the eye markings though, was it always like that, did the serpent mark according to some template that showed up different for different chakra types and ages, or was it that Naruto lasted the whole trial without screaming and Manda acknowledged that.

Orochimaru had been older and more experienced, which is why his marks are larger and of a lighter color then Naruto's. It wasn't something that changed over time either, meaning that everyone would know that Naruto had passed the Serpent's Trial at a young age, and with little to know actual combat experience.

Might be why they had such different eye markings, their age and skill level were very different at the times they took the trial.

Ibiki shook himself mentally, not needing to be distracted when his student was present. That would be a bad example to set for a young and impressionable genin.

Even if it would annoy the heck out of the prospective Jounin sensei that had been chosen for the cell said genin was part of.

Not to mention the entertainment value of watching said jounin yell at someone for ignoring him or being late. That would be entertaining from the sheer hypocrisy that would be involved in such an undertaking.

"Good. I see that your new rank hasn't made you relax your level of discipline." Naruto continued to hold his stoic expression, though Ibiki detected the faint redness that meant that the compliments were heard, and still effective. That was good, it meant that Naruto still valued Ibiki's opinion, which meant that he still had influence in his life and choices.

The Second Advent of Orochimaru was still preventable.

Now if only the Sandaime would let him take Naruto as an apprentice, or put him on a team other then the one that he'd decided to put him on. That team was almost guaranteed to make the Second Advent occur.

Just like how Konohamaru had decided to be seventh Hokage, because Naruto was to strong not to be the Sixth. Thus, it was obvious that the team that Naruto would be joining, would be called 7.

And while would call him the Jiraiya of the Team, he was clearly the Orochimaru. The snake contract aside, he was too curious, too smart, and too good at learning, using, redeveloping, and mastering jutsu.

Look what the kid did to the Henge, for example. He'd turned an E-rank illusion technique into an S-class physical transformation ninjutsu. They had yet to discover the full uses for the thing beyond infiltration undetectable by chakra sensing.

He knew that Naruto would find even more uses for his unique jutsu, especially once he had mastered it to the point of doing it seallessly and without any signs, such as smoke. Once he'd managed to get it to that point, he most likely come up with even more uses for his unique shape-shifting ability.

Hopefully, he'd manage it before Kakashi or the remaining Uchiha tried to copy his reworked jutsu.

That would be bad, no one wanted to have a homicidal Uchiha capable of completely disguising himself in the village.

He wondered if he would be able to continue training Naruto like this, now that he was going to be training with a team and going on missions.

The training session had continued on as normal, with Naruto learning more about being a ninja in the service of a hidden village. Ibiki was teaching him all the political aspects of being a Konoha-nin, psychology, and of course torture. He had already taught him the basics of genjutsu torture, which basically makes them think its been going on for hours.

He smirked as he remembered the practical exam in interrogation he'd given Naruto, with the traitor as his test subject. It turned out that Ibiki was a really good teacher if you judged by how well Naruto had done at performing that particular job.

Ibiki called a halt to the review training session when the sun began to set, leaving Naruto with one message as he used the shunshin to go back to work.

"Give them hell tomorrow, gaki."

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Naruto couldn't hold back the gleeful smirk as he headed to the Academy building to meet up with his new team. Each of his sensei had given him permission to reveal the effects of their secret training, since he was no longer able to be kkicked out of the academy for being to strong. Now that he was a ninja for real, the Council couldn't throw him out of the program without the Hokage's approval.

And Hokage-jiisan would never do that to him for any excuse the Council could concoct.

Sometimes, he really loved being a prankster on the inside. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to fully appreciate the opportunities offered by such occassions as the one he currently found himself in.

No one in his class knew what he could really do, which meant that no matter what team he ended up on, he could enjoy the looks of shock that would cover their faces when he revealed what he could really do.

The only team he wouldn't actually enjoy being on would be one containing the "last" Uchiha, or one of the Uchiha's fangirls. Sure, he'd once had a crush on Sakura, but training with hhis sensei, especially Anko and Ibiki had taught him a lot about healthy relationships, and the one he had had with her was bordering on abusive.

Not to mention the fanaticism she had for the Number One Rookie of the Year, A-class self-centered jerk, Uchiha Sasuke. No way he was going near the pink haired harpy with the possibility of romance until she had a major priority and personality adjustment.

He felt sorry for whoever ended up with either them, relationship or team wise. It was obvious to him that neither of them was stable enough to have a healthy relationship, though he may be slightly biased...

"Hey, what are you doing here? This is only for people who passed the test?" Instead of giving a verbal answer, the pensive blonde merely pointed at his hitai-ate, preferring to continue musing about the possible combinations of ninja for teams, and the likely hood of himself ending up happy with the result.

He'd had a foreboding feeling in his gut ever since he entered the classroom.

Unfortunately, he wasn't far enough out of it to miss the squealing banshee demanding she move so that she could sit next to Sasuke-kun, as she called him. Thankfully, he managed to get out of the seat before she smacked him for denying her. Unfortunately, that left him sitting next to her, as the other seats had filled up while he was busy thinking.

'No wonder Ibiki-sensei told me to be more aware of my surroundings...'

Then Iruka-sensei came in, and began calling out the teams. Teams One through Six were teams that Naruto knew would not make it past the final exam that he'd heard Anko talk about. Then came team seven.

"Team seven will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura..." both Naruto and Sakura slumped in depression, "...and Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto slumped even further, while Sakura shot up and cheered, before holding up a victory sign toward Ino.

Naruto then raised his face toward the heavens, begging in his mind to know what he had done to deserve this.

He was so deep in misery that he only barely heard the announcements of Team Eight and Team Ten, which consisted of Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Yamanaka Ino respectively.

"Your Jounin-sensei will come to retrieve you after lunch. You have one hour until then." Naruto drew himself up from his seat and went up to the roof, wondering what he could possibly do to get out of this. Unfortunately, most of the plans he could come up with in his panicked and depressed state would have made him a nukenin, or would disappoint the old man.

He would admit that his thoughts might also disappoint the old man, but human beings have their limits on what they can be called upon to bear with. Until he saw evidence that this wasn't as bad as he thought it was, he was going to work on contingency plans for when either he or his teammates snapped.

He was betting on it being Sasuke who snapped first, with all of the angst that guy generated on a daily basis.

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While Naruto spent his hour on the roof, and then more time in the classroom contemplating the latest complication in his life, the Hokkage was introducing Hatake Kakashi to the living conditions of one of his new subordinates.

Kakashi was not very impressed with the place. The walls were covered with spray paint and cracks, the floor creaked, the water didn't run hot, and the furniture was crappy.

What did the kid do, eat so much ramen that he couldn't afford to pay for new things?

Noting the time in the slightly beat up alarm clock, Kakashi decided that he had made the newest genin team assigned to him wait long enough. After all, hhe might actually be keeping this one.

He did owe it to Obito to give his cousin's team a chance, after all.

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Naruto was getting angry. This guy had made them wait for three hours already, and there was still no sign of him. Part of him wanted to make a deadly trap and see if it worked on lazy jounin, but he managed to curb the impulse...

"Hey!! What are you up to, Naruto?!"

... for the most part.

Instead of one of the nigh inescapable kunai traps that he'd learned from Iruka-sensei, Naruto had decided to leave an eraser in the top of the door, which would fall when the door was opened wider. Hopefully, the Jounin would dodge this trap, which would show significant environmental awareness, instead of merely an awareness of possible dangerous objects in the vicinity.

There was no way that they were going to fall for this simple prank...

Naruto got down off the chair and headed back to his seat under the berating of the pink-haired banshee more commonly known as Haruno Sakura. The Uchiha was doing his thing by being a silent asshole...

"No way could a superior shinobi be caught by such a simple booby trap." Naruto stood corrected, the Uchiha felt he must assert his superior intelligence over the class dobe. It was just another example of the unpredictability of people. Ibiki-sensei had always warned him that no behavior prediction was ever completely accurate or perfect.

Naruto decided not to respond to the Uchiha or the fangirl of the Uchiha, as he could hear the faint sound of someone walking down the hall. There's no way this was the sensei, unless he was completely confident in his ability to handle a possible ambush, there was no way he let himself make even that much noise...

A hand appeared in the crack in the door, and a messy head of silver hair appeared in the opened doorway just in time for the eraser to hit it. Naruto took in his appearance as best he could from the faintly surprised personage before them.

Cloth face mask, tilted hitai-ate covering one eye, fairly tall, wearing the jounin vest of the leaf, Konoha symbol on the hitai-ate, lazy looking right eye...

The man stood up with an eye-smile, looking rather as if he enjoyed the prank for a moment, while Sakura made excuses of trying to stop him from pulling his prank.

"I'm sorry sensei. I tried to stop him, but Naruto..." Sakura looked so nervous and apologetic that Naruto almost felt bad for trying to do a semi-accurate test for their teacher's awareness of the environment. Almost.

"Hmmm...How shall I put this?" he said while chuckling faintly. Naruto felt the sense of unease from earlier amplifying.

"Based on my first impression, I'd have to say...I hate you!"

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Well, here's the chapter. Konohamaru had a brief mention(and might get more time later), and Ibiki was mostly his own introspection, but Team 7 has been introduced to one another.

Next Chapter: Introductions, and the Final Exam to become Genin! What will have changed, what will remain the same? And why am I asking you all these questions?

Please, if you have questions, suggestions, or comments, review.

Tenshi


	4. Introductions to the Real

The Beginnings of Change: Hengesai Naruto

Summary: In a world were Mizuki wasn't evil, and he and Iruka had been training Naruto in secret during his time at the academy, Naruto will realize his true potential, and become the true Henge Master! (Note: I am not that good at summaries.)

Warnings: Sasuke bashing, Sakura bashing, slight Kakashi bashing(increases when in Naruto's POV), possible Harem for Naruto, good Orochimaru (not pedophile!), possible non-Yondaime father. Possible Soul Caliber Crossover, Bleach, Yuyu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, and Final Fantasy

Pairings: tentative (Subject to change w/o warning)

Anko/Iruka

Mizuki/Wife

Naruto/Harem?

Sasuke/Naruto(onesided)

Lee/Sakura(onesided:If Sakura is redeemed, she will return his feelings)

Shikamaru/Temari

Gaara/Matsuri

Chapter Three: Introductions of the Real

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Naruto wondered if it was considered wrong to drive his teammates to insanity, since they seemed intent on driving him there first. What had Ibiki-sensei said?

"Act unto others as they would act unto you." Yeah, that was it, but that probably wouldn't satisfy him in this situation. Which meant he could do one of two things.

First, he could get indirect revenge via being an utter nuisance, or he could retaliate with interest, as Anko-sensei had taught him. He could start with the sporks...

'Wait, Hokage-jii-san would so not buy into that. Which means, I'm going to have to make do with indirect vengeance.' Oh well, perhaps there would be opportunities to get full recompense for this later, when he could hide the evidence of his involvement.

It would take some time, but that just gave him longer to plot out his vengence.

What was he seeking for, some would ask? Well, they'd have to understand what he was going through at this very moment, atop the roof of the building that had once been known as hell to him, aka the Konoha Ninja Academy. He and his 'teammates,' and he used that term loosely, had been waiting for three hours, for this grey haired incompetent pervert, who was obviously too lazy to get there on time.

The man had told them to meet him on the roof, and when they got up there, he had told them that they had almost been late. The hypocrisy of that statement was next to infruriating, but thanks to training with Ibiki-sensei and Anko-sensei, he refrained from expressing his opinion in his rather extensive vocabulary at the top of his lungs. Instead, he began plotting how to leave the jounin a few untraceable 'surprises' when he got home.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto sat down in front of the lazy ass jounin with his fellow genin, wondering if he'd ever adjust to these people before he went on a homicidal rampage. Normally, he'd give people a chance when he met them, but something about all this felt like it was going to end very badly for him. Kinda like he'd already been through it all before, and ended up some kind of loudmouth brat whose only strong points were chakra capacity and sheer determination.

Shuddering at the feeling of deja-vu that that possibility inspired, Naruto returned his attention to the lazy jounin who is apparently meant to be his sensei from now on.

As if he could possibly compare with Ibiki-sensei, Anko-sensei, Mizuki-sensei, or Iruka-sensei....

"Now, I'd like you all to tell us a little bit about yourselves." The lazy bastard, leaning against the rail with his arms crossed over his chest, now appeared slightly more like the ninja he was supposed to be.

"Like what?" Sakura's voice was respectful, but that probably came from her obsessive tendency to memorize everything she could in books.

"...You know. The usual. Your favorite thing...what you hate most...dreams, ambitions, hobbies. Things like that." The man's nonchalance was becoming increasingly irritating. That was somewhat worrisome. Naruto's tolerance for people was usually much higher then this.

"Sensei, shouldn't you go first? After all, we're all from the same Academy class, we already know each other." Sakura's volunteering of information so carelessly was so going down in his list of reasons why he shouldn't trust her with sensitive information.

As soon as he actually wrote one down. Just like his lists of people he could trust, places he could shop, places he couldn't shop, people who would stab him in the back, people who would stab him in the front...

Pulling himself out of his distracting train of thought, he focused on their new teacher.

"Oh...me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I'm the kind of person who doesn't feel like talking about his likes and dislikes! My dreams for the future are none of your business...but anyway, I have lots of hobbies.." The lazy expression on the man's barely visible face never changed, but his tone was mildly amused, but mostly monotone.

"Hey...he said a lot, but all we really learned was his name..." Sakura's statement did not ring true for himself, but Naruto held his silence on that matter. If they didn't want to pick up on the fact that their new instructor was apparently very good at talking without saying anything, and thus probably very resistant to interrogation, than that was their blind spot, not his.

"Now it's your turn. Starting with you on the right." Since they were seated with Sakura on the left facing Kakashi, Sasuke in the middle, and Naruto on his other side, they knew who he was referring to. Since Naruto had decided it was to dangerous to act like a total clown now that he was an actual ninja, he was going to keep the mask to a minimum.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like spending time with Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei, training, and eating ramen at Ichiraku's. I dislike the three minute wait for instant ramen, and being judgmental." Watching his teammates reactions of faint surprise, he knew he'd upset their mental image of him, but not so much as to make them question if he was really Uzumaki Naruto.

"My dream is to become a better Hokage then all others before me, and protect this village." Naruto's smile, was very real as he thought of all his sensei, Sandaime-jii-san, and Konohamaru. He would become as strong as he needed to be in order to protect them, and the village they loved.

'And perhaps, one day, these three will be added to the list of people I would die and kill for.' he thought as he watched their reactions to his statement. Sasuke didn't really seem to notice or care, Sakura was looking at him like it had to be a dream, and Kakashi-sensei looked shocked, but then it faded to a contemplative expression.

"My hobbies are pulling pranks, and training, I guess." He watched the silver haired man scratch at his head, as he went over the information in his mind, which apparently did not take long.

"Next!" Since the Uchiha was sitting next to Naruto, that meant it was his turn. Sasuke sat in his usual position, with his fingers interlaced in front of his face, but his elbows were resting on his knees, since they weren't sitting at desks currently. He continued watching as the Uchiha began talking.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are plenty of things I hate, but I don't see how that matters, considering there is almost nothing I do like. It seems pointless to talk about 'dreams'...that's just a word..." The Uchiha's attitude was very worrying, as it indicated, according to what he'd learned from Ibiki-sensei, an extremely negative mindset. Sasuke's near blank tone shifted to something with more determination and drive behind it for his next statement.

"...but what I do have is an ambition. To restore my clan, and there is someone I have sworn..." If the boy wasn't looking more and more like the very definition of a possible future psychopath, Naruto would have called him a total emo drama queen. He might anyway, but something in Sasuke's behavior was making him wary.

"...to kill." A quick glance to the side told him that Sakura just found her crush even cooler for his words, and that Kakashi-sensei expected something like this from the Uchiha. His own expression probably showed that he was slightly disturbed by the words and tone of his teammate, but no one called him on it. Though he did catch Kakashi looking at him from the corner of his eye.

Naruto was pretty sure that no one would take it well if he tried to cut the sudden tension with one of his kunai, although he was almost certain that it would actually work. He'd seen Iruka-sensei do it to break the tension in some of the sessions were most of his sensei had managed to show at the same time.

"And finally...the young lady.." Apparently, Kakashi-sensei was also adept at hiding his thoughts and emotions behind his lazy and bored expression and attitude. Sakura perked up slightly before glancing at Sasuke with a faint blush on her cheeks.

"I am Haruno Sakura. My favorite thing is...well, it's not a thing, its a person. A boy...and that boy is..." Holding her hands up near her face, she glanced at Sasuke with a blush on her face and a love-struck look in her eyes. It was very obvious, especially since Naruto knew she was a member of the USFC. (Uchiha Sasuke Fan Club)

"Uh...let's move on to my dream." Considering the blush and faint squeal he heard, Naruto was certain that he did not want to know what kind of images were playing in Sakura's mind right now. From the look on Sasuke's face, he didn't want to know either.

"I hate....Naruto!" The narrowed eyes looked almost ridiculous on her face. Naruto managed to look slightly upset by her declaration of hatred, but find Sasuke's hidden glare at her far more interesting. Sasuke didn't like something about what she'd just said, but for the life of him, Naruto couldn't figure it out. Was it some kind of possessiveness about who was allowed to hate him, or something, since they had a rivalry going?

"My hobbies are..." Her blush and look towards Sasuke were all Naruto needed to know on that subject, and the faint blush on Sasuke's cheeks was more intriguing. Strange that it had shown up after Sasuke had noticed him looking at him. From the expression on Kakashi's face, and the fact he had his jaw cradled in his palm, he was somewhat puzzled by Sakura's introduction and its lack of anything shinobi related.

"Enough." Kakashi-sensei's expression was serious enough for Naruto to devote his full attention to the still aggravating ninja whom was his official teacher.

"I believe we all understand each other. Formal training begins tomorrow." Naruto nodded slightly to indicate that he had heard his sensei, but Sakura had to know what they were doing apparently.

"What will we be doing, sensei?" He just looked at all of us lazily, with a somewhat droopy eye that made Naruto wonder if he had gotten enough sleep.

"Our first training exercise will be survival exercises with just the members of this cell." It was somewhat obvious to Naruto what was going to happen, but he had the benefit of being trained by people who were very good at molding someone to take advantage of their natural talents. And Naruto was very insightful. Something was up with this.

"But why would that be a mission? We did survival exercises in the Academy." Sakura's question was valid, but only if you were a civilian, or a ninja who felt you had no reason to expect to have to survive in the wilderness. Kakashi was still speaking though, so Naruto returned his attention to the outside world, leaving behind his inner thoughts...for now.

"But you'll have to survive...against me. It won't be your typical practice." Being confused, Naruto wished to clear up the task he'd be preparing for tomorrow, so he asked the obligatory question.

"Well then, what kind of practice will this be?" He wondered if he should be offended by Kakashi's snort, but decided to take it out of him in the mission tomorrow.

"What are you laughing about, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura was acting somewhat intelligent, oh dear god the world is ending!

"Oh, nothing. It's just that... of the twenty seven members of your graduating class, only nine will be accepted as genin. The other eighteen will be sent back to the academy for further training. The test we are about to perform has a 66% rate of failure."

There was a moment of silence, and then, seeing that nobody was going to speak out against his edicts, he coughed into his hand.

"In any event, we'll meet at the practice field tomorrow morning. Bring all your ninja tools and weapons. And don't have breakfast beforehand...unless you enjoy throwing up." He then walked toward them, holding out three sheets of paper.

"The details of your assignment are in this handout. Memorize it...and don't be late!" With that, Kakashi left, leaving three genin candidates behind. Naruto looked over his prospective teammates briefly, but seeing them absorbed in their own minds for the moment, headed for home.

He would need to shower and get some sleep if he was going to prove himself in the test tomorrow.

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Sitting in lotus position on one of the three logs, sharpening the blade of one of his kunai, Naruto looked the very picture of a shinobi in the early morning light. At least, that's the case now, after he finally chose new clothing to wear in place of the orange monstrosity of certain death.

Yes, he definitely owed Anko-sensei for her aid in getting new cloths to wear in place of that thing. Perhaps he could take her to her favorite dango stand after their next training session?

As he pondered the pros and cons of offering dango to his sadistic older sister-figure, he heard the approach of his fellow genin hopefuls, Sasuke and Sakura. Both of them were carrying huge backpacks filled with weapons and supplies. Since he could see the faint signs of exhaustion and hunger in Sakura's face, he guessed that the knowledgeable kunoichi had not slept well, or eaten breakfast. Similar signs stood out upon Sasuke's pale skin, but he was hiding it better in his expression than the more emotional member of their squad.

Looking at them as they fought to stay awake, he was grateful for the lessons his many sensei had taught him about preparing for missions. Sleep, and eat, even if someone tells you otherwise. He wouldn't be weakened the way his teammates were, however slight the deficiency was.

He could feel their eyes on him, curious as to his lack of obvious equipment. He had all of his extra supplies safely sealed away, his weapons stowed in their places upon his person. He was certain that Sakura wanted to berate him for not following the instructions, but it seems she decided to wait for their teacher to do it.

Too bad she had no idea that she would be waiting for quite a while, if she thought that Kakashi-sensei should be the one to admonish him for his supposed lack of preparation.

Good thing he had lots of weapons to sharpen. This was going to take a while.

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Sasuke had no idea how the dobe was doing it, but he really wished that he had the Sharingan so that he could do it as well. What ninjutsu was it that would allow Naruto, the loudest and most hyperactive pathetic excuse of a ninja wannabe ever, was managing to remain calm and patient in the face of the multiple hour wait for their pathetic excuse of a teacher.

And then there is also the fact that some how, the dobe could ignore the screeching fangirl...

"Hello, everyone!" And now the man was here. At 10 o'clock in the morning.

"YOU'RE LATE!!" Sasuke managed to resist the urge to rub his ears as they rang from the volume of Sakura's exclamation.

Naruto merely continued sharpening the blade of his kusari-gama, seemingly unaffected by the sonic blast. And for that, Sasuke envied him. It would be so much easier to focus on gaining power so he could defeat that man if he weren't being assaulted constantly by inferior females intent on helping him with the second of his ambitions.

Meanwhile, lazy Jounin with silver hair pulled out an alarm clock, which got incredulous looks from everyone except Naruto.

That might be because he was not looking at the Jounin, but at the newly re-sharpened weapons he had been working on. The sheer quantity made even Kakashi sweat, at the thought of them being used on him for the annoyance he had been instilling in his potential little genins.

Clearing his throat imperceptibly so that the genin didn't notice his unusual nervousness, he set the alarm clock down on top of the stone.

"You have until this goes off to retrieve one of these two bells from me. The ones who get the bells get to eat. The one who doesn't will be tied to the post while I eat their lunch in front of them." That had their stomachs rumbling... wait a minute... They all turned their gazes on Naruto, who had not made any sounds of hunger at all. He returned their surprised looks with a slightly sheepish expression.

"Iruka-sensei told me I should always eat breakfast, even if the mission commander told me not to. And you only suggested we not eat, it wasn't an actual order." Kakashi was slightly impressed that the kid had picked up on that. There was a chance that there was more to this kid then he knew... he'd have to watch him.

"Well, I see that someone here actually knows an important fact. Always follow the instructions of trusted sources first." Naruto looked somewhat embarassed at being given such praise, which actually brought a slight hint of real happiness to Kakashi's eye smile.

"I'd like to see any of you disobey Iruka-sensei..." Kakashi noticed that though they both probably wanted to comment on it, the other two genin hopefuls couldn't really complain. They'd both been taught by Iruka-sensei as well, after all.

"Well, anyway, if you don't get a bell, you don't eat. And you're going to want to come at me with the intent to kill, or your going to fail..." Kakashi waits for an imperceptible sign that one of the genin was going to go for it immediately.

"But... we could hurt you! That's way too dangerous sensei!" There was silence. Then Kakashi looked at his other two potential students. The Uchiha, with whom Obito had nothing in common save distant genetics that were in question, was standing radiating arrogance and ego. For a moment, Kakashi was impressed. If ego were chakra Sasuke had just outdone Kami and all the Bijuu. Combined. Times three. Trillion.

(....oh god, it was going up!)

Then he checked the Uzumaki. Then he did a double take. The look of abject horror at Sakura and Sasuke's total lack of anything resembling common sense or survival instincts was impressive. Amazing. One of the three understood the situation. They were doomed, and two of them didn't even recognize it.

'Oh dear god, what lies have these people been perpetrating on the village.' Hatake Kakashi had lost all faith...in the Academy Grading system.

This was going to suck very badly.

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Oh holy mother of Satan!

**Wow, nice one.** The thought had to belong to the demon residing in his stomach.

...

When did it start talking to him? Oh who really cares, he was going to die! The supposed genius Haruno, whom he had faked a crush on, had just insinuated indiscretely that they had a chance in the pit of the Yamato no Orochi shit-hole of even touching this person when he wasn't letting them think they had a ghost of a chance.

A gay ghost clown appeared in the sewer of his mind. Then there horrifying screams. Followed by gulps and a burp. This shocked back to the original life-threatening dilemma.

How the fuck was he going to get away from a very high class assassin, from the assassin clan no less, that had war experience? With a Sharingan, from a questionable Uchiha. Anko-sensei had told him what to do in situations like this. Unfortunately the advice had been geared towards survivng an encounter with her sensei.

Hope hell is really just like that for the crazed religious fanatics. Whoever they were. It was old advice passed down alongside the contract of Serpents from Master to Apprentice. One day, he would tell his student that advice...

Oh wait, no he wouldn't. Because thanks to his idiot genius and retarded prodigy teammates, he was going to die here. Unless maybe...Hatake-sama would accept a servant? Or a human sacrifice? It works with dragons... Sasuke was a virgin right?

Oh wait, that was his fallback for getting away from Orochimaru in case he ever accidentally invaded the Sannin's roaming territory of death, affectionately dubbed the kill-zone by Anko-sensei.

He'd have to try sacrificing Sakura then. Too bad he didn't know the consequences of non-virgin sacrifice. At least it would buy him time to flee to the presence of Ibiki-sensei. Who scared anyone. Roaming kill-zones don't count as anyone, they count as certain death in ball of fun. Oh joy.

Ahem, he digressed. He was twelve. He now knew his date o'death. Today.

Unless... perhaps a plan would save him. Or at least calm down.

'Must come up with a plan....'

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That was somewhat weird. He could swear that the blond had just had an extremely potent, but even faster mental meltdown on account of needing to somehow defeat his desire to kill them... What the fuck was with this group?

What happened to the good old days when freshies knew their place and got used as cannon fodder? That is it, one more minute of arrogant stupidity and the black and pink would be delivered... STABBITY DEATH!

.... Ahem, it's time to get started on the test so that I can get rid of the self-centered brats. Uzumaki might be worth keeping an eye on, though. Oh wait... the Council tried to order me to pass the bratty Uchiha...

Dammit, I might end up stuck with the idiot geniuses for the rest of my life! There's no way it's going to last very long if they're on my team, because they'll do something blatantly idiotic and I'll have to save them!

I might end up fighting Itachi, because Sasuke's completely useless.... I know! I'll get on Naruto's good side! Then when I inevitably end up in hell, Kyuubi will vouch for me! Torture every other hour, instead of constantly, and no unmentionables... such as those imperceivable crimes, whatever they may be...

A-hem... he'd gotten side tracked again, he really needed to work on that problem of his...

"Well, Sakura, you'll just have to trust that I know what I'm doing, won't you?" Peeking through his eye-smile, Kakashi noted that Sakura still looked mildly concerned that she could hurt him if she came at him with intent to kill.

'Either she has a very high opinion of the skills of herself and the Uchiha, or she thinks that I can't possibly be too much stronger then their genin class mates.' Either way, her thinking process was seriously lacking in information. Freshies take on a season jounin in a serious fight? No contest.

This Academy year was not living up to the expectations that had been set for them, if this was the smartest kunoichi in her class. In fact she looked like a complete idiot.

"After all, it's not like you have any chance against me, even if you did come at me with intent to kill." The tone he used was full of lazy smugness, and he could see that it was getting to her. Just a bit more pushing, and she'd snap, and he'd see what she was really made of.

Decision made, Kakashi whipped out his copy of Icha Icha Paradaise, and began to read. This blatant disregard would surely be enough of an insult in her head to be worthy of attack.

"YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Sakura ran across the field, as the arrogance of the silver haired Jounin overwhelmed the little common sense she had left after years of devoted worship to Sasuke and his awesome coolness. Kunai drawn, she went to claim the bells so that she could prove herself worthy of being Mrs. Uchiha Sasuke.

'Apparently, that was enough to make her snap.' Kakashi watched as the pink haired kunoichi wannabe ran toward him with a raised kunai, her intent obviously on getting the bells. He could definitely make use of this as an object lesson.

As Sakura traversed the field at a pace only slightly faster then a civilian running from a debt-collector, Kakashi waited for the perfect moment. Then, when she was just over halfway between her two teammates and him, he reappeared behind her, using his free hand to hold her kunai to the back of her own head.

"Whoa there Sakura, you did a good job on the intent to kill, but I hadn't said start yet." Unfortunately for Sakura, when Kakashi grabbed her wrist, she did not stop running, which resulted in her running her own feet out from under her. She landed on her ass with her torso being held at an incline by the grip on her wrist that her now crouching instructor was using to hold her own kunai to her head.

As if this was not enough humiliation, Sakura knew that the love of her life was there, watching her right now. Not to mention the presence of the dobe, Naruto-baka. Curse him... that stupid blonde with his blue eyes...

Now that Sakura thought about it, most of her troubles seemed to stem from blondes with blue eyes...

Was there some kind of conspiracy at work? Were all blue eyed blondes out to prevent the acheivement of true love between herself and Sasuke-kun?

There was a brief moment of silence, before inner Sakura began ranting about how she would one day annihilate all blue eyed blondes.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((In An Undisclosed Cave))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

In the dim lighting of the fire, two unusual people sat next to each other as they discussed the details of their upcoming mission in the Land of Waves.

Then, suddenly, one of them sneezed, and got the urge to go to Konohagakure and bomb the Haruno clan compound.

He quickly suppressed the urge, as it was part of one of the many incidents that No-One-In-The-Organization-Would-Ever-Speak-Of-Again. One of the ones that had occurred when he had gotten drunk.

He, and the rest of the organization shuddered as the thought passed through the rings that linked them together.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Kakashi POV))()()()()()()()()()()())()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

With the disturbing feeling that the pinkette he currently had pinned had earned the anger of one of the entities in the shinobi world that all fled before if they were smart, he decided to continue the test anyway.

After all, he had already come to the conclusion that this team would likely be the death of him anyway. Why delay the inevitable, when you could do your best to avert it all together?

Moving back to his position across the field, he watched with outward apathy as the loud pink menace moved back to her position as a constrictor, doing her best to cause the necessity of amputation on Sasuke's right arm. Not that she was aware of that, of course.

She's far too stupid to possibly be pulling the necessary level of deception to be attempting to maim a kekkai genkai clan heir before he gets the chance to become strong enough to protect himself from the other clans and villages that might threaten him.

Naruto, on the other hand, had the hallmarks of being capable, but uninterested in such a thing.

Of the three genin before him, only the Uchiha was a real concern. While Naruto had the greater power and skill, he was also a person with self-control. Sasuke was likely to suffer a psychotic break and injure him with some kind of crazy trick while trying to really kill him.

"Start." And before his eyes the little ninja (and two wannabes) disappeared into the surrounding environment. Checking around him, he spotted Sasuke in the tree, and Sakura hiding in the bushes. Naruto, on the other hand, was much harder to find.

'Well, he is the kid who managed to elude pursuit while wearing the bright orange monstrosity. Perhaps I should try chakra detection.' Searching his surroundings, he felt the bright, averagely controlled flare of the Uchiha, the pathetic reserves of Sakura, and the decently controlled, decently hidden chakra of Naruto coming from the trees near the pond. For a genin, Naruto's chakra control was excellent, and more then enough to hide from most chuunin. Kakashi was an elite jounin, however, and it would take more experience and training before Naruto could really hide from him.

While Kakashi was noting that the three could at least hide themselves decently enough for beginners, he noted that Sakura was still angry about his earlier actions against her. Leaping out of her hiding place, she ran towards him with the kunai drawn, attempting to either stab him or cut a bell loose.

Side stepping the bum rush with the casual air of a man on a sidewalk, he let her run right into one of his traps. The snare catching around her ankle, Sakura was now upside down, hanging from a branch. As she fumed, muttering about how rude it was to do something like this to a lady, Kakashi pulled out his beloved Icha Icha Paradise.

Then kunai and shuriken flew out of Sasuke's tree, and he replaced himself with a log.

Reappearing in the tree above Naruto, he noted that his potential genin had noticed his arrival, but was doing a very passable appearance of being unaware. He smiled faintly, pleased as the blonde leapt away from the tree, tossing a kunai up at him, and another cutting the rope binding Sakura, who barely managed to land on her feet.

Dodging the kunai, Kakashi moved in front of Naruto, who looked wary, but moved into a taijutsu stance that reminded Kakashi of the Jyuuken.

"Lesson one: Taijutsu." Moving with more fluidity then Kakashi would have expected, the blue-clad genin closed with him, lashing out at his chest with a palm strike. Brushing the move aside with his free arm, he ducked the follow up high kick, then jumped over the swift leg sweep. Naruto continued to attack, flowing from one move to the next with no sign of difficulty, a fluid grace that comes from long practice infusing his movements. Impressed, Kakashi jumped back when Naruto finally made a swipe at the bells, putting away his book and taking his own stance. To his surprise, Naruto smiled slightly and ran into the trees, keeping one eye on him as he essentially fled from the higher ranked ninja.

'Smart of him, now where are the other two?' Glancing, he noted Sasuke hadn't left his tree, and Sakura was making her way towards the object of her lust from a round about behind route. For a moment, he wondered if this was the stalker/rapist behavior rearing its ugly head. Oh well, he'd worry about Sasuke's virginity later. Like after he blocked the new wave of kunai and shuriken.

Using the log from before, he switched positions, and snuck up on Sakura.

"Sakura." Jumping with an audible squeal, she spun to face him, and he held up the ram hand seal, and leaves swirled around her, as she gained the blank look of genjutsu. And then, when he was certain she was fully under the illusion, he moved up into the trees again to watch what would happen.

'Well, I thought she was supposed to have a decent score in genjutsu, apparently not...' he thought as he watched her scream and pass out from whatever the Hell-viewing jutsu showed her.

"Lesson two: Genjutsu. Fail." Well really, he would say worse, but its a fangirl. Thus, all expectations need to be low, or you'll suffer endless disappointment and frustration. Hopefully, the years that this... girl spent as a worshipper of Uchiha, would not prevent all chance of rehabilitation into a semi-decent piece of cannon fodder. It was highly unlikely.

"You can come out now, Sasuke." Kakashi didn't show it, but the slight signs on the mini Uchiha's face of smugness and assurance, were really making it hard for him to avoid thrashing the kid all around the training grounds.

"Both of the others have already met up with me, and now we'll see how you do, Sasuke." A scowl overtook the boy's face as he moved into a stance.

"I'm different from those two." As soon as the words finished leaving his mouth, the boy was throwing himself at him in a taijutsu combo to try and reach the bells. The movements and pattern were nothing to Kakashi's superior experience, although he did make it look like Sasuke had surprised him enough to almost grab one of the bells.

And then, he separated the two of them by several feet, and watched as Sasuke ran through the handseals necessary for the Katon: Goukakyou no Justu. Going underground, he pulled Sasuke into the earth with the wonderful technique he'd learned when he'd been fighting an Iwa-nin.

"Lesson Three: Ninjutsu." he could have told Sasuke that he was right, as the other two were at least slightly concerned about other people, but he decided that dealing with the sneak attack he was about to suffer was a better idea.

Jumping backwards away from the buried Uchiha, Kakashi was slightly impressed with the attempt Naruto was making to get him away from his buried teammate via clones and weapons while the blue-clad genin pulled his pseudo-teammate out of the ground. Kakashi had to admit that he was impressed. The Academy had finally sent him a team that had someone in it who understood that you didn't leave comrades behind, no matter how much you personally dislike them.

The azure-eyed genin moved into a slightly Juuken-like taijutsu stance, leaving some Kage Bunshin to dig his teammate out while he distracted the Jounin from being able to interfere. Naruto was treating this like it was a real battlefield situation, the way Kakashi himself had warned them to.

This kind of serious behavior from a novice was something to be proud of, and Kakashi knew that. If only the other two would behave this way, he wouldn't be so against the idea of taking this team on.

When Naruto lashed out with a palm thrust aimed at his chest, Kakashi moved it to the side with a simple forearm block. He was surprised, however, when Naruto swept the arm he had struck with to the right, and Kakashi's arm was pulled in the same direction. The kick to his newly presented back sent his confused form careening into another encounter with his old and well known acquaintance the ground.

'What the hell?' While he struggled for a moment with the newest set of oddities to force themselves into his life, his body was on automatic. Kakashi's long career as a ninja had given him the ability to set aside things that were bothering him in favor of continuing to fight, which is a necessary ability in the world of shinobi.

Naruto's continued control of his arm was disconcerting, but not enough that Kakashi didn't catch on to at least part of how it was being done. It was somewhat like what the Suna puppet users did, attaching chakra strings to objects in order to control them.

'And yet, somehow, this feels completely different.' Kakashi ducked underneath a high crescent kick, and then was forced to jump back away from a low spinning leg sweep. On top of all that, he was being forced to maneuver around his arm moving without his will.

'Dammit, if my arm keeps pointing towards Naruto, I won't be able to do ninjutsu!' With frustration clouding his mind, he missed Naruto jerking the chakra string towards himself, and knocking him to the ground by slamming the chakra rope into it.

This time, Naruto didn't give him time to try and get upright, bringing his right leg down from overhead in an ax-kick. Kakashi rolled out of the way, and saw that where he had been laying now possessed cracks in it. Springing upright, he managed at last to break free of whatever kind of chakra cord Naruto was using by flaring his chakra.

He began making some rapid handseals, wanting to keep the wily little trickster from doing that trick to him again before the time ran out and he could tie someone to the logs.

Using some blood from a nick on his arm from his roll across the ground, he spread it down the scroll he used to call to his summons.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" a very large cloud of smoke appeared, much larger then when he usually called for his dog pack. Plus, when he said it, it had sounded like there was another voice saying the same thing much more quietly.

As soon as the smoke cleared, Kakashi was given proof that he had not been imagining the second voice, and that he really needed to start listening to the part of his mind that gave him the feelings that something was a bad idea.

As he expected, the six dogs that made up his personal summons from the dog clan were surrounding him from the front.

He had not expected to see his potential genin standing on the head of a python that was big enough to swallow him whole.

He was still staring at it when it began to swing its tail toward him in order to aide its Summoner in defeating him. Fortunately, the aforementioned ninja reflexes kicked in.

Unfortunately, as he was sent crashing to the ground, he did not jump high enough to get clear of the overly large reptile's attack. Although he didn't feel anything broken really badly, but he definitely had cracked ribs, as well as cracked bones in his forearms.

"I think you hit him too hard." The serpent, nameless for now, was shocked and confused. What did the summoner mean? Everytime it had been summoned by the others, it was to kill their enemies, or be 'killed' in the attempt.

Did...did this Summoner... believe in him? Believe that he could defeat an enemy without killing it, and not be killed? The large serpent was filled with both awe, and determination. This Summoner, he would not fail. This one would not be disappointed by him.

Kakashi was holding his ribs gingerly as he knelt on the ground, the pug Pakkun sitting on the large bulldog's head in front of him, while one of the small dogs ran off to get a medic nin. It could just be the pain, but Kakashi could almost swear that the enormous serpent in front of him had had sparkling eyes for a moment, before they filled with flames that were scarily reminiscent of some of Gai's more...passionate...moments. Kakashi shuddered at the comparison.

Right, hallucination induced by pain it was.

In the meantime, while Kakashi was combating the pain of his fractured bones, Pakkun was making a deal with the hebi-summoning genin. He normally wouldn't do this, but Kakashi was his summoner, and was decent enough for a non-canine. All right, it was time to make the deal.

"Hey kid." The blonde on the snake looked around, and pointed at himself.

"Yes you. Don't attack Kakashi, and I'll let you touch my paw." The kid was down on the ground in front of him so fast it was astonishing. Plus, he was poking his paw.

As if to interrupt the sudden tension filled peace, the alarm clock finally went off.

'Saved by the bell. How ironic is that?' Kakashi thought, as Naruto dismissed with his thanks.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Sasuke's POV)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Log clearing, 12 minutes later.

Sasuke had no idea what was going on. Not that he would ever admit that, for Uchiha were never confused or disoriented. His father had told him so. And his father, as Head of the Uchiha clan, was never wrong.

Not even when he contradicted himself, as whatever was said before was right then, and whatever he said recently, was right now.

The current situation, was this. The annoying pink haired fangirl was bound to the log, his accursed enemy.

Naruto, the dobe, had somehow gotten his dirty filthy unworthy non-Uchiha claws on one of HIS bells! And then he had the gall not to hand it over to its rightful owner and his master.

And Kakashi, the worthless jounin, had passed the dobe! Without passing him!

Apparently, he and the fangirl would be getting their second chance in an hour after lunch. And the fangirl wasn't getting any food. Serves her right, the useless whiny bitch. Like he would ever soil his clan with her useless genes.

However, the dobe, unlike the stalker, was apparently not going to be available to help him in the second chance, as he had already secured his place as Kakashi's student when he somehow managed to get one of the bells. YEARGHBLE!!!

...ahem... what Sasuke meant was, fortune always favors fools. Must be why the dobe is a genin instead of at the academy since he failed the exam.

Satisfied for the moment with his view of the situation, Sasuke returned his attention to his prospective sensei. Apparently, the man had been giving some kind of speech or something about the stone nearby. Something about comrades, and dead people.

Pfft, it wasn't like they were Uchiha. Therefore, they were unimportant. Even if one of them was Kakashi's best friend.

(AN: Ironic, no?)

Kakashi handed the dobe a bento, and then passed the second one to him. Obviously, he needed to have someone tell Kakashi how things really worked in this village. Perhaps this bento had better food or something.

While Sasuke and Naruto sat down on either side of the bound Haruno, Kakashi was heading off to get some bandages for his injuries, just before he departed the clearing, he looked back over his shoulder at them.

"Remember, Sakura doesn't get any food." Then he disappeared from sight and view. Kakashi's voice carried one further thing to Sasuke's ears however.

"Remember to look underneath the underneath."

Glancing to the side as he opened his bento, he watched as Naruto opened his, so that he could make certain that the blonde wasn't getting anything that he wasn't. After all, the dobe didn't need the food. HE was the one who would have to fight a Jounin for the bells so that he could get stronger. Sasuke needed to get stronger, so that he could finally be strong enough to complete his goal.

Perhaps he should ask what the dobe had done that had ended with him getting a bell, so that he could do it better. No, that would be like admitting that the dobe was better then him, and someone he needed to learn from. There was no way that he, as a Uchiha, needed to learn from someone inferior to him. Look at the way the dobe had been in class. He was practically a disgrace to ninja everywhere.

Where as he had been the best student and the Rookie of the Year. He was superior to Uzumaki Naruto, and he would prove it to the dobe.

Perhaps he could use the fangirl as some kind of shield or distraction, but that would only work if she had the energy to stand, let alone move. This meant that he would have to do something to make sure she wouldn't pass out before he could use her. Perhaps if he gave her some food, she would be willing to follow along with his plan.

Decision made, Sasuke held some food out to the bound Haruno, who tried, desperately, to refuse in order to prevent him from getting into trouble with their sensei.

"Eat it. You'll be of no help to me if you can't even stand." She looked at him with adoring eyes filled with awe and worship. Because she was bound to the log and unable to do so herself, Sasuke was left with the task of feeding her. It was humiliating, but he wanted to win.

"Thanks, Sasuke-kun." He held up a small piece of sushi. As soon as she chewed and swallowed the first bite, an explosion of smoke appeared before them, with an enraged Kakashi coming towards them.

"YOU..." Sasuke waited, brave in the face of danger, quivering in readiness to strike, while the dobe stupidly sat there, hand frozen in the middle of eating his sushi.

"Aagh!" Sakura made a frightened cry at the aura radiating off the apparently angry Jounin, while Sasuke bravely reached for his kunai pouch.

"Pass!" Just as suddenly as the aura of death appeared, it was gone, replaced with the earlier easy-going feeling that emanated from the masked ninja.

For a moment, there was shocked silence. Sasuke could not believe what he had just heard. They passed? For what? What had they done in the last fifteen minutes that meant they didn't need to retrieve the bells from their Jounin-sensei?

"What? What do you mean we passed? Sasuke-kun and I didn't retrieve any bells yet!" the bound weakling's words were screechy and not very well received by any of the males in the vicinity. Therefore, for a moment, there was a ringing silence in the field that contained the logs and the Konoha Memorial Stone.

"...yes, however... Sasuke and you disregarded my orders in order to help your teammates. Those who do not obey orders are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are lower then scum."

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A pale man with piercing green eyes and midnight black hair looked in the direction of Konohagakure no Sato. His black and white lips parted.

"Such individuals are trash."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Back to Sasuke)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

(AN: Like canon, no?)

"The exercise is now concluded. You all pass!! That's all for today, Team Seven. Your duties will commence tomorrow." With that the grueling test was ended, and at last, Sasuke was one step closer to achieving his goal.

As he headed toward his apartment, he heard Kakashi-sensei cut the pink banshee loose.

Probably concerned about public health risks. After all, who knew what a drunk might do to himself if he stumbled across a bound Haruno. Even if they are well known as sources of misery.

Oh well, time to go home for his three hour power nap, so that he could defeat that man.

And tomorrow, he would seek for more power....

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And at long last, OWARI DA!

This chapter was hell on my mind. Writer's block struck at every given opportunity.

Hopefully, the next chapter will come easier.

A slight spoiler, I do not plan to follow the exact order of events. The Wave mission will come, but a certain land bound in cold will be saved first...

And, we'll meet some new faces in the next installment.

See you all next time.

And thanks very much to those who reviewed. Were it not for you and my friend Yami no Orochi, this might still be in progress.

Next Time: Breaking of Illusions


	5. Breaking the Illusion part 1

The Beginnings of Change: Hengesai Naruto

Summary: In a world were Mizuki wasn't evil, and he and Iruka had been training Naruto in secret during his time at the academy, Naruto will realize his true potential, and become the true Henge Master! (Note: I am not that good at summaries.)

Warnings: Sasuke bashing, Sakura bashing, slight Kakashi bashing(increases when in Naruto's POV), possible Harem for Naruto, good Orochimaru (not pedophile!), possible non-Yondaime father. Possible Soul Caliber Crossover, Bleach, Yuyu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Nintendo and Square Enix.

Pairings: tentative (Subject to change w/o warning)

Kakaski/Iruka

Mizuki/Wife

Naruto/Harem?

Asuma/Kurenai

Sasuke/Naruto(onesided)

Lee/Sakura(onesided:If Sakura is redeemed, she will return his feelings)

Shikamaru/Temari

Gaara/Matsuri

Sasori/Deidara

Chapter Four: Breaking the Illusion (Part One)

* * *

Naruto was getting very close to committing unsanctioned homicide. As a ninja, there would be times when he would be called upon to do certain...unpleasant things. Things that Konoha would forever deny, in order to maintain peace. Anko-sensei, Ibiki-sensei, Iruka-sensei, and Mizuki-sensei had all warned him about this.

Anko and Ibiki-sensei even used pictures.

Of all the terrible horrid soul-damning things they had warned him of, this was not one of them.

"Avenger One, I have the target in sight." an arrogant, emo voice sounded in his ear.

"Hime Two, I also have the target." came a screechy voice, right into his still recovering ear.

"All right. Gold Snake Three, acquire the target." the lazy voice of his deceptive sensei was a relief, after the aggravation of listening to his teammates.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei." Before he could move, he was stopped by further communication.

"No, you will use my codename, Gold Snake Three."

"But it's..."

"No, use it."

"Fine. Understood."

"I'm waiting..."

"Super Pimp Zero."

"Good. Now, acquire the target!"

We, Team Seven, are genin. Ninja of the lowest rank. Still, this was not in the job description. I mean, to have to catch...

"Sen'eijashu!" Snakes flew down his arms from beneath his tank top shoulder sleeves, somewhat awkward, but most effective. The serpents hit there target, binding it with coil and fang. There was silence.

Then an earth-shattering cry of pain.

"MEEE-OOWW!!" ...well, maybe not earth-shattering. Still, it was very brief. Likely from the sedative nature of the venom which had been injected into the target, which he retracted the snakes to bring to him. The target was definitely unconscious...

"Gold Snake Three, confirm the target."

"Confirmed, ribbon on right ear that says 'Tora.' Target captured, Super Pimp Zero."

...a cat.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(In the Mission Office)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Five Minutes Later...

Naruto looked on as the large woman strangled her cat with her chest in her attempts to express joy at his return. He was somewhat concerned. Not because this seemed almost blatant animal abuse, but because the cat hadn't woken up when she started squeezing it. The pain should have brought it out of unconsciousness.

Unless he had misjudged the dose of soporific venom and its concentration.

How to avoid getting in trouble for accidentally killing the target?

It was the daimyo's wife fault. How many times has she nearly suffocated the cat? This time its luck ran out.

Yeah, that could work... wait, blaming the one who pays for the mission is bad...

It was Sasuke, he accidentally killed it in transit. By mishandling it.

Did Sasuke ever hold the cat on the way back from the mission?

Of course he did, he'd never trust such an assignment to anyone else, as they are not Uchiha. Thus they couldn't possibly get it right...

Yeah, that was a good one...

Hey, where'd she go? Crap, I need to stop spacing out when I need to think.

Returning his attention to Hokage-jiji, Iruka-sensei, and the mission list; Naruto couldn't help but wonder what kind of crappy excuse for a mission they'd receive next.

He knew that there was no way they'd be sent on real assignments for a while, but come on. These things were chores.

112 missions, now 113. 57 of them had been the retrieval of the bloody cat, while the rest had been more simple chores, such as fence-painting, garbage collection, sewage clean up, baby-sitting... shudders. Like what was thought before, this was not true ninja work, and Naruto was unwilling to credit the village council with the ability to come up with a truly good reason for making genin do this shit.

Although... they would probably claim it was traditional. That all genin teams in the history of the hidden villages had done chore-like missions. If only Iruka-sensei hadn't been telling the truth about the traditional intro into being a full-fledged ninja.

If only they could go on a real mission, perhaps he wouldn't feel the urge to psychotically murder something...

Sarutobi-jiji took one look at Naruto's face, and told them to take the rest of the day off, and he would give Kakashi their next mission tomorrow.

Naruto went home, deciding that it would be best that he avoid his real sensei for now, as some of them could get really scary when he showed up in a foul mood. Ibiki-sensei did not take attitude well, and Iruka-sensei....

Well, he'd rather not go there.

Naruto went to bed, convinced that tomorrow, would not be much better then today.

In his defense, it wouldn't be.

Just not the way he thought.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Mizuki's POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

One of the two Academy related sensei of young Uzumaki was in fact trying to fulfill Naruto's mission based needs. While Iruka was willing to let things stay as they were for a while longer(the mother hen that he was), Mizuki understood that his young and impressionable student had needs, like all ninja.

While many of the pacifistic minded people in the ninja world would like to believe that killing and fighting were only a sad fact of ninja life, there was a truth in the fact that as human beings, ninja needed confrontation. Violence was only one of many different types of conflict available. It was also one of the best ways to satisfy that need, and it was completely acceptable in shinobi society.

Naruto, he could tell, was in need of some violence, before he hurt something he wasn't supposed to. Like the cat his team kept getting sent after, that had been around Mizuki was a genin. Every ninja had had that mission, ever since there had been a village to answer to the Fire Daimyo.

As Mizuki snu-infiltrated the missions office to look into getting a better assignment for his protege, he wondered if there was any truth to the rumors that someone had found documentation that proved that the Daimyo's cat was older then the ninja world.

Finding the missions folder for the next day, he began scanning the books, looking for something difficult, but doable. He couldn't get their student killed off, though with Kakashi there, C was definitely within the range of acceptable risk.

'Let's see, escort, protection, escort, protection, blah blah blah, whoa, this looks promising.' Opening the related file, he read over the mission data.

This was going to be perfect for Naruto's team. They'd get out of the village for a few weeks, and meet people. Plus, it would be good for Naruto to spend time with more experienced genin.

Yes, plus there was the entertainment factor of watching Gai and his "Eternal Rival" stuck on the same mission. With their brats. While guarding a celebrity.

If only he could get it on film...

While Mizuki was day-dreaming about the possible hijinks that could make such excellent blackmail material, he slipped Team 7's file into the mission folder. Because of his distraction, he didn't realize he'd also added Team 10's.

Putting the folder back and placing everything where it was when he came into the room, Mizuki left, ready to end his day. The things he did for the sake of his student...

Satisfied that his self-appointed mission was finished, Mizuki headed for home, absent-mindedly concealing himself from ANBU patrols the entire way.

It was a good thing he'd hinted to Naruto's other five sensei that he was planning to help Naruto get a better mission, otherwise he might find snakes in his bed when Anko found out.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Anko's POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

There were moments when Anko felt she might understand her former instructor. This was not one of them.

In her hands, thoroughly checked for traps, poison and seals, among other things, was a letter. From her former sensei, Orochimaru of the Sannin.

He had sent her a package to go with this letter. And like the letter, there was nothing wrong with it. Well, other then the fact that he'd managed to send it to her in the first place. And that it's contents were rather hard to find and make, not to mention expensive as hell. That was probably one of the perks of being one of the strongest ninjas in the world, on top of being an S-rank criminal. Walking kill-zones don't pay for much of anything.

The letter explained the meaning behind sending her this unique gift. Apparently, he'd found out she had a student from the serpents. She should have known that they would tell him.

After all, he was the one who had written the contract. However, she wished she could understand their willingness to be his messenger service. She knew they were responsible for this.

After all, serpents were more then devious enough to spy on his behalf, and were very willing to oblige their primary summoner. It explained both how he could have found out, and how the package got here.

She was vaguely reassured, by the fact he didn't seem to know the name of her student, but that could just be him testing her.

Even though they had parted on...difficult and confused terms, that she was completely in the dark about. She had the feeling that there was something going on with that that no one was telling her...

Anyway, back to this... present from her sensei to her deshi.

It was just so...perfect. How did he know she'd been looking for something like this?

Maybe he really was keeping tabs on her, like she'd thought...

Oh well, might as well take it as it was meant, meaning Naruto was definitely getting this in the morning.

For now, she needed some sleep before she wrote the reply letter.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((OC POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Oshiro Koohii was confused. His line had been personal assistants(AN: cough*secretaries*cough), ever since they had left farming behind. This position was guaranteed them when they discovered the art of defeating paperwork. Their office management skills were second to none. It was for this reason, that Oshiro Koohii had never been a regular genin.

He had been scooped up by the Hokage tower staff the moment he graduated the Academy. He had been joined by his only friend in the Academy, Haruno Ruri. Her bright blue hair had made her something of an outcast in the Haruno clan. That, and her desire to be an actual ninja instead of a trophy wife or princess, unlike her immature little sister Sakura.

In fact the fifteen year old pair of chuunin (office based promotions, they needed to have authority over the interns), had both graduated pretty low on the scale of their class rankings. Koohii because his talent was in administration as opposed to physical combat, and Ruri because well, she was born into the Haruno clan. They didn't allow her to do real training.

Sipping at his coffee(possibly number 18) to help stay awake at this kami-forsaken hour of the morning, known amongst night shift everywhere as 0'dark thirty, he continued to arrange for mission information to be sent to the appropriate ninja for later that morning.

Distracted as he was by the caffeine and his "friend", he almost missed the other two genin teams in the mission file he was reviewing. He could have sworn that this was a one team mission for genin Team Nine. But that was probably just the coffee talking.

Wait a minute, when he'd been in the office earlier, Sandaime-sama had promised all three of the newly graduated genin teams that they would learn of their mission tommorrow. Team Eight was on restricted duty pending psych-eval of all the team members, except the Aburame. Everyone in the ninja system knew that they were total sociopaths, there was no need to check. The Hyuuga apparently had self-image issues, as well as stalker-like tendencies, much like Harunos. Other then Ruri-chan of course.

As he thought about how wonderful and different Ruri was from the rest of her clan, he wrote up two scrolls explaining the mission. Unfortunately, in his distraction, he wrote a third. This would not have been an issue, if one of the messenger hawks hadn't snatched the spare scroll he didn't remember writing while his back was turned.

Thus, it happened, and thus he would not be blamed.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Later That Morning: Kurenai's POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

One Hour Later...

Team Eight under Yuuhi Kurenai, was awaiting the decision of the Sandaime. Sitting in a circle, Hinata and Akamaru visibly nervous, Kiba self assured, and Shino being an Aburame.

Yesterday, during a semi-routine mission, in which they sought the killer of Tora the cat, there had been an outburst of relatively small proportions.

Kiba had not taken the fact Naruto had killed something before he could at all well. Especially when it was a cat, the arch enemy of Inuzuka everywhere. Because there were totally more of them, secretly controlling the world behind the screens. Totally not side characters. Especially not to people like Uzumaki Naruto, who are mentioned in the title.

As they sat in the pre-dawn light, high above a messenger hawk circled. This hawk had not been sent out with particular instructions, having swiped the scroll it carried from behind the scroll-writer's back.

Teach him to not pay attention to the ninja hawks...

As he circled high above the ground, a scent wafted up into his naval cavity. He was stunned by this most excellent scent and swooped down from the skies in order to find it.

Spotting the four ninja sitting in the field, the hawk knew that the scent was coming from one of the females. Most likely the younger one, as the older one had smoke and booze in their scent, not to mention that weird scent that adult humans sometimes got.

Naturally, he dropped the scroll from his talons upon her head as he rushed to attain the scent. Swooping down from the skies with the grace of a leaf in the wind. Of course, this meant that he was flying around as if intoxicated, which was likely true.

Falling into the startled Hyuuga's lap with all the grace of a high as a kite avian, the messenger hawk made a summoning pact with her without even informing her of it.

After all, he was going to be sticking around for a while, he could inform her of it later. When he was sober again, instead of high off adrenaline and the various other fumes that had reached him that day.

After all, anyone with hands that talented was worth keeping around. Plus, he was somewhat sure that part of her smell came from using various medical herbs. Meaning that it was entirely possible for him to get access to more of the good stuff if he stuck around.

That's right, he was a druggy. And damn proud of it! Did people think being a ninja was easy? So what if he was a messenger, and a hawk? This shit was stressful man!

Oh he liked this one... Calm, mellow, and smelled like the good stuff. Plus, she was hitting all the right places with her fingers.

While the hawk was enjoying the tender scratching and petting from Hyuuga Hinata's slender fingers, her sensei was reading through the message scroll.

It wasn't everyday that a young new Jounin instructor wondered if her team was going to be disbanded. Especially if it was because of a clan heir's outburst drawing attention to how very dysfunctional and mentally unstable they all were.

Mentally and intellectually, Kurenai could understand it. Being a ninja was a highly stressful and mentally traumatizing job already. There was no reason to allow people who already had problems of that variety to become even more stressed and strained.

It was things like that that lead to nukenin of such caliber as Uchiha Itachi, who had massacred his entire clan save for his younger brother in a single night.

(AN: Overachiever much? He is such a show off...)

All clan heirs were watched much more closely for signs of mental issues. And damn her luck, she had three on the same team. Sometimes she wondered if this was some kind of test of her ability to handle being a Jounin.

But that was neither here nor there, especially since her team had apparently been cleared for a long term C-rank mission.

Perhaps Hokage-sama had faith in her ability to keep her charges and students safe and sane after all. And here she'd been worrying because she'd overheard some snatches about her being unsuited for her position.

Just because her family was civilians before her did not mean she couldn't handle this profession. Just like being a woman didn't mean she was incapable of being a professional in this field. Just because she liked her bright white and red bandage wrap dress.

After all, many clans of ninja had been started by civilians, hundreds of years ago. Kurenai was determined to be like them, and begin her own clan. Like the Kurama, they would be genjutsu specialists. And their clan colors would be red and white.

But enough of her ambitions and dreams, she had a mission to prepare her students for.

"Shino, Kiba, Hinata. I need you to head home and pack for a three week mission in Yuki no Kuni." They stared at her blankly for a moment, the early hour not being conducive to their awareness level. But once it hit them, they headed off to pack like the over eager children they could sometimes be.

Well, that was mostly Kiba. Shino acted like normal, and Hinata was being nervous.

Still, they were going home. This was progress over their previous disregard for her instructions.

Perhaps Hokage-sama was sending her team on this mission to teach them to be a team.

Which would be why the mission scroll mentioned Teams 7, 9, and 10.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Asuma's POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Looking at the scroll in his hands for the fifth time since he had told his team to go pack for the mission, he couldn't help but wonder if his father was punishing him for something, or giving him an unknown reward. Much like a cookie, or a pack of smokes.

(AN: What was it with their clan and being chimney-stacks?)

Seriously, he was getting out of the village for a while, while being in the company of his friend Kakashi, and watching the hilarity of his interactions with The Green Beast of Konoha, Maito Gai. The taijutsu specialized jounin had memory troubles stemming from his area of interest. He'd taken a few too many blows to the head.

But that wasn't important. It wasn't like Gai would forget something like how many teams Hokage-sama had sent on this mission.

(AN: snickers)

Ah well, no need to dwell further upon it. He needed to head to the ninmart. He was going to need a lot of smokes on this trip.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Naruto's POV))()()()()()()()()()()())()()()()()()()()()()()

One Hour Later...

Naruto looked around his apartment as he packed the necessary supplies for the three week mission to Yuki no Kuni. Everything he considered important to him had been sealed inside a scroll so as not to leave it vulnerable while he was out of the village.

'Let's see... I've packed 50 instant ramen packets to supplement my other meals, five sets of my cloths, many weapons sealed in scrolls and twenty kunai in my kunai pouch with my 2000 senbon. I am good for this mission, cause I've got my scrolls.' Naruto shut his pack and hoisted it unto his back. All he had to do now was head to the gate to meet up with the rest of the ninja going on this mission.

As he headed for the door, he spotted something coming towards his window out of the corner of his eye. Jumping backward to get completely out of its way, he was unsurprised when the flying blur resolved into a banner held up by kunai, which read:

'Konoha's Sexiest Kunoichi: Mitarashi Anko!'

And standing in front of it, looking just as dangerous and psychotic as always, was his beloved Anko-nee-chan. And she looked like it was her birthday come early.

This was either going to be really good, or really painful. Or some sadomasochistic combination of both that could only truly be achieved in a ninja lifestyle and culture.

"Hey, Naru-chan! Didn't think you'd go off on your first real mission as a ninja without a goodbye from your sensei, now did you?" the smile on her face was just as sweet as the tone of her voice, and just as dangerous to the unwary as the serpents she had taught him to summon.

Fortunately, for him anyways, he was not one of the blind and foolish masses who could not comprehend the truth of Anko-sensei's behavior.

That didn't mean that he wasn't careful anyways. One of the first things she had taught him was to always be wary, even of those you trust.

Which is why when she thrust the parcel into his face, he took it with some trepidation. After all, many times he had received things from her that had been pranked/trapped, which is were he had learned some of his detection skills that had done him in such good stead when he was off pranking the village. Or when villagers had managed to get into his home again.

Unable to spot anything wrong with it, he unwrapped the package. When the paper fell to the ground, inside was a scroll. It was smaller then average, but Naruto recognized it for the storage scroll that it was. Glancing at his sensei for prompting, he unrolled the scroll and channeled his chakra into the seal.

With a brief puff of smoke, Naruto found a very interesting object laying on his apartment floor. Lifting it up with shock and no small amount of awe, he turned his eyes to his smiling instructor, confirming that it was indeed what he thought it was.

Unable to restrain himself, he hugged his sensei, shocking her slightly with the depth of his gratitude and appreciation. Slowly, she returned the gesture, reminded for the first time in a long while, why she had decided to train this gaki.

However, the sentimental moment could not last long, as neither of them was very comfortable with such displays when not done in jest for their amusement. Ruffling his spiky hair in affectionate teasing, she pushed him towards the door.

On his way out, he put the carefully re-sealed present into his pack. He had some other sensei's to visit before he left Konoha on a mission for the first time.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Sakura's POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Haruno Sakura was(AN: in her opinion), a sweet, kind, and understanding soul. She was in no way violent or quick to judge. She was an excellent kunoichi who looked forward to the day she could truly prove her worth to her beloved Sasuke-kun. And then politely and without smugness and jubilation, show Ino-buta to a different husband.

Inner Sakura piped in her own opinion: "After shoving it in that blond bitch's face, shannaro!"

Quieting her inner self quickly so as not to alert her precious future husband to any kind of problem that would cause him to marry elsewhere out of misunderstanding and fear for her safety. After all he could believe that it was his fault she was like this!

Being one of the first to arrive at the gate, she was somewhat annoyed with the delay in her teammates arrival. Sasuke-kun had shown up almost fifteen minutes ago, looking as calm and cool as ever with his black travel pack that was belted onto his back (AN: OMG! Crappy Haruno Poetry!). He was so awesome...

Ahem, she shook her head slightly, needing to clear it so she could continue to focus on what was going on in order to be of the most use to her beloved future husband.

Almost everyone was here, including some people she hadn't been expecting. While Kakashi-sensei had told her that Team 10 would be on this mission, as well as Team 9, which had graduated last year, she had not been informed that Team 8 was coming. She didn't mind all that much of course, as Hinata was not interested in Sasuke-kun, although why anyone would be attracted to Naruto was beyond her. Oh well, it just meant she only had two girls to worry about instead of three. Although there was the fact that their charge was a young women. After all, not everyone could be as blind as the creepy Hyuuga bitch.

Although, Sakura wasn't completely certain that Hinata was attracted to someone other then Sasuke-kun, or even that that person was Naruto. She just made the assumption because of what she had overheard once at a Uchiha Sasuke Fanclub meeting.

However, that was unimportant at this time, as she needed to focus on keeping Sasuke-kun safe from the clinging grotesque parasite before it infected him with its venom as part of the Blonde Blue Conspiracy to keep them apart.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Unknown Cave))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

For the thirteenth time that week, the slender blond member of the organization felt the urge to set off to Konoha in order to destroy the Haruno clan. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, the other members of this elite organization recognized the behavior, as it had become fairly prevalent in recent months. It had also been determined, in spite of the majority vote in favor of allowing the clan genocide, that it would not occur, as the lone dissenter from those who were not the leaders of the group, had in fact gotten the approval of the leaders.

It was for this reason the slighter blond male ended up at the bottom of a dog pile made up of most of the organization members. His arms were restrained to his torso by the metallic tail of his partner, the tan hand of a friend held him to the ground, and the pale hands of a cursing zealot kept him from lashing out too much with his legs with the help of the multicolored hands of a strange man. The blue hand of the dissenter's partner pinned his head in place, while the dark haired pale dissenter smirked at him from beside the leader and his blue haired partner.

"You really need to stop doing this, it is becoming troublesome Deidara."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Sasuke's POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

While Sasuke was contemplating what his newest mission meant in terms of how much closer he'd gotten to that man's level in order to avenge his clan, he was not paying that much attention to the clinging blonde fangirl currently latched onto his arm.

In fact, he was not paying much attention to anything, as it was all beneath the notice of one so exalted as himself.

Thus, the dobe's arrival was something he barely registered, and then only because the dobe was on his team, and thus was his. The silver haired sensei from the Academy, Mizuki, was walking with him, smiling as the blond at his side spoke enthusiastically while holding a scroll to his chest.

For a moment, Sasuke wondered what was going on between the two, but he swiftly realized it was beneath him, as they were both just barely above civilians. And all Uchiha knew that civilians were beneath ninja, particularly Uchiha. After all, the dobe had no clan to speak of, and Mizuki was from a clan that was barely above the level of civilian. That put them on similar levels, which would explain why they interacted with each other at all now that the dobe had finally managed to graduate from the academy.

In Sasuke's mind, the weak sought to help one another to the best of their feeble and limited ability. The strong had no need to receive help from the weak beyond the first instruction of an ability. The strength and skill of the strong came without the help of others. The strong could only truly be taught by others who were strong as well.

This teaching relationship could last only until the student had surpassed the master, at which point only the briefest and most basic of instructions would be needed, as the stronger would be much more intelligent and perceptive then their weaker master.

While Sasuke was contemplating his view of the world, Naruto was putting away his new weapon that Mizuki-sensei had given him, a new kusari-gama by the name Fuutetsu. It was made of well crafted steel, and had a matte black finish with gleaming blade with a razorsharp edge.

After they departed for the docks, Sasuke began to take in the world around him a little more meaningfully, as they were now outside the walls of Konohagakure. For the first time in his life, he was on the other side of the defensive wall that protected the village from invasion since the time of the Shodaime Hokage Senju Hashirama. As a member of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke had been taught all about the founding of Konoha by the Senju and Uchiha clans, he just hadn't been very interested in such information. And after he joined the Academy, it had seemed even less important. Who cared about history beyond what was needed to get the highest score on the tests? It wasn't going to help him fulfill his ambition to kill that man...

Once more lost in his own mind as the two fangirls attempted to gain his favor and drive away their competition, Sasuke walked in front of the client and the individual they were apparently supposed to be guarding. Team 8 was to the subject's left, while the rest of Team 10 was to her right. Kakashi-sensei was right behind him and the Haruno, while the dobe was behind the subject, completing the diamond formation thanks to the presence of Team 9, who were also behind the subject. The Jounin-sensei were staying with the majority of their students, which meant that Fujikaze Yukie was as guarded as possible from all directions.

It was somewhat pleasing to be in the front, where he belonged as leader of these weak and inexperienced genin. After all, by right of his lineage and training as a Uchiha, he was much better prepared then they were for any signs of trouble or difficulty.

It was for this reason that they made it to the boat that would take them all to Yuki no Kuni without any trouble or delays. The enemies who would have attacked had all sensed that there was no point in even trying to defeat one so powerful as a mighty Uchiha. Thus, like smart weaklings, they stayed away.

It had nothing at all to do with the fact there were four jounin rank ninja on this trip, nope, not a thing. After all, without the immense and powerful nature of Uchiha chakra, there was no way for unrefined bandits to sense their immanent demise.

Yeah, that had to be it.

Delusion shored for the time being, Sasuke climbed up onto the boat that would take them on to their mission destination, the place were they would guard Fujikaze until the filming was done.

At the same time, an entity that existed within the depths of Sasuke's mind rolled their metaphysical and metaphorical eyes in exasperation. What was it with these Uchiha, that made them think they were so superior? Perhaps he should introduce the little fanbrat to the harsher realities of the world?

'Pointless.' There was no need to inform Outer Sasuke of the existence of the real world. After all, everytime they were in a real dangerous situation, he got more control. Soon enough, he would be strong enough to take full control from the book-smart and spoiled little wannabe.

Then he could find the one who had caused this mess, and make them fix it. After he took care of the rest of the mistakes that remained in the world, of course.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Sakura's POV)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Walking around the deck trailing behind her Sasuke-kun, Sakura had barely enough presence of mind to keep on the alert for interruptions to the private moment she kept trying to have with her beloved but shy crush. After all, there were at least two potential thieves present, ready to try and steal Sasuke from her.

They just couldn't accept that fate had decided that she would be Sasuke's beloved when she and Sasuke were put on the same team. That should have been clear enough a sign that she, and not they, were meant to be Sasuke-kun's wife and beloved. Of course, if he had been put on a different team from her, she wouldn't have given up on him, convinced it was merely a test of her devotion to her beloved.

She therefore, did not take any chances that Sasuke would be alone with any of the females on this mission. Even though one of them was a Jounin, and the other a famous actress who had no need to put up with Sasuke's self-centered attitude in order to get even more handsome attention when she wanted it. She also ignored the fact that one of the three females close to her in age had a rather extreme crush on her other teammate, and the one slightly older then her knew better then to mix work and personal business at their current skill level. And besides, if she was going to be attracted to anyone, it would at least be someone she knew.

And so Sakura continued her illusionary campaign to defend her claim on Sasuke's affections, providing amusement and concern in equal measures to her two slightly more sane teammates. Sanity is relative, after all, and in a world were it is considered a career option to be a killer for hire, their relative calmness was considered fairly sane.

As she followed Sasuke around the ship, the others were busy watching over the the actors as they went about filming some of the scenes for the newest movie involving Fuun-hime. It was because of the locations of the various ninja on board, and their relaxed states at the time, that no one noticed when a small shard of ice shot through the center of the ship, from aft to prow.

It even ruffled the tail feathers of the Uchiha's hairstyle. This, of course, went completely unnoticed, even by the superior skills of the inner version of Sakura.

Of course, that may have been because the superior skills in question were true genin level, instead of Academy level with Chuunin book knowledge.

Anyway, the two continued on their way along the corridor, never realizing that there was a really good reason to report suspicious occurrences to Kakashi.

You can't report something suspicious if you never even noticed it in the first place, after all.

Sakura thus continued her delusion of being Sasuke-kun's girlfriend, and eventual wife, blissfully quiet as her imagination began to fill in evermore details that fleshed her delusion into a reality all its own in her perception.

Unbeknownst to her, the hidden personality of Sasuke was at that very moment wondering if he had sensed anything in the bit of breeze that had ruffled his hair. It had been cold, which meant it could have been the air conditioner.

So, the two genin who weren't watching over the client for the moment continued to walk about below deck. Sakura because she was protecting her claim on Sasuke, and Sasuke because he didn't want to reveal the fact that watching the water had been making him seasick.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Outside the ship, on the water)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Following in the wake of the ship, unnoticed by the ninja on deck, and the film crew, were many things. Much marine life had been attracted to the disturbances that ships created in the ocean. Because of the waters temperature, there were very few predatory fish, although there were some dolphins earlier who had checked it out.

These things were natural, and would of course be following one of the rare ships to the frozen land of Yuki no Kuni.

The three people standing on the disturbed waters like it was the most natural thing in the world, however, would not.

The tallest of the three was ash blond and had green eyes. He was also the oldest of the three, at least in appearance. He wore a black robe with a silver sipper, black gloves, and black boots.

To his left was a young man in more typical shinobi garb, wearing a fishnet shirt, slightly baggy gray pants, and a white toga that went over one shoulder. His shoes were more like cloth wraps, and didn't cover all of his feet. His eyes were an icy light blue, and his hair was light green in the bangs, and light blue in the back.

Between the two, and in front of them, was the shortest, and youngest looking member of their trio. Wearing a black hakama and swordsman kimono, with a white haori over it, and a pair of tabi and straw sandals on his feet, he was dressed more like a swordsman. Especially since he was wearing a katana almost as long as he was tall on his back, in a dark blue sheath held in place by a green band of cloth. His hair was white, and his eyes a piercing teal. And although he was the youngest, he was also the one who had sent the ice shard through the ship.

As they watched it continue forward, the tracking squad of Yuki Shinobi followed, alert as possible for any sign that the multiple teams of shinobi on board had noticed their presence.

They could have boarded, and grabbed the objective of the mission, but that was the other squads job.

And none of them wanted the other squad to be bitchy about it for Kami knows how long.

Even if their assignment was boring as anything they'd ever been assigned, with the possible exception of administrative duties.

Even Yuki Shinobi, developing village that they were, feared the evil known as paperwork.

And being such a young village, they had not yet managed to attract one of the families of the Oshiro clan to make it easier.

So, the three stoic ninja continued to follow the ship, with the coordinates being transmitted to the other squads at regular intervals.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(On deck:Kakashi's POV)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

So far, everything was going well. He had gotten to read a few more chapters of his favorite book without interruption, Sakura and Sasuke were below deck and thus out of his hair, and Naruto was not maiming anyone out of mission induced frustration.

Sure, he had to put up with the presence of Maito Gai, and the rookie jounin kunoichi with something to prove, but on the plus side, his friend Asuma was also here.

On the negative side, there were nine genin on board whom he wasn't used to ignoring the antics of, while still paying attention to his surroundings. That was why he had only managed to read a few chapters instead of the whole book.

Sure, the Aburame and the Nara were okay. And Naruto was behaving like a real ninja as usual, so he was still the most tolerable member of his team. But the male Hyuuga was always glaring at the female one, the Inuzuka was being a noisy and nosy nuisance, the Akimichi would not quit it with the chips, and the Yamanaka wanted to go find 'Sasuke-kun'.

Gai's kunoichi was just fine, and being serious about the mission. But Rock Lee was behaving like a Gai-clone.

Which meant he was surprised no one had tried to throw themselves overboard from the trauma of seeing that Sunset. Perhaps it was because they knew that he was there to help them learn to cope with being in the vicinity of people who randomly made challenges and declared the dreaded and feared 'Power of Youth'?

Looking over at the mostly calm and not shouting Gai, he got the feeling that the reason he'd thought of probably wasn't the complete answer, but it was still a possibility.

However, it appeared that the crew was preparing to go ashore to film a segment of the movie. The three teams of genin, plus the single member of his own team to stay above deck, were all spread out amongst the actors and crew, curious about what such a job required. Naruto, he noticed, was scanning the area from his position near Yukie-san.

The young Inuzuka, Kakashi thought he might be named Kiba, was watching his young student with a hostility that he couldn't quite grasp the reason for. Perhaps something to do with their last mission...?

Well, whatever was the Inuzuka's problem, he didn't need to worry. Naruto was a much better ninja then any of the other brats, which is why he'd told Naruto about some of his previous missions. Like his last mission to Yuki no Kuni so many years before, and that very interesting armor that made chakra based attacks next to useless. It was...nice...to have a student who was actually interested in being a ninja, instead of being an avenger or a damsel in distress.

As he watched the actors set up to begin filming the scene, he thought he detected a chakra signature that was slightly familiar to him. Right as the actor playing the villain Mao drew back his hand as if to cast some horrid spell upon them, there was an explosion further up the glacier.

As everyone turned to look at it in confusion, Kakashi took his place in front of Yukie-san, Naruto having been a good ninja and taking a similar place at her right. The other jounin, having kept some tabs on their fellows, noticed these moves and took up their own positions, trusting in Kakashi's instincts not to lead them astray on this mission.

It was moments like these that made Kakashi proud to be a Jounin of Konohagakure no Sato.

He didn't get very long to bask in that pride, however, as the smoke of the explosion cleared to reveal three Yuki ninja, two shinobi and one kunoichi. And one of those two shinobi looked very familiar to Kakashi. And it wasn't in a 'we are allies and have fought on the same side way', but a 'we have taken shots at each other before, how the hell aren't you dead?' kind of way.

That meant that it was Rouga Nadare, member of the Yukigakure Jounin Squad 9.

And the man had been trouble the last time they'd met...

Though from the look in his eyes, he was having the recognition moment as well. And Kakashi had improved since their last the Yukigakure ninja had elemental turf advantage in their domain, they didn't have the kind of resources necessary to make truly powerful ninja the way major villages could.

Meaning that it was entirely likely that the Konoha group could take all these snowbound morons and bury them deep beneath the ice.

The only problem with that logic is that there were some very powerful ninja in Yukigakure. Not many, but there were some in that village who could give any A rank ninja a very hard fight for his life.

But fortunately for them, when he'd gotten the data on the area they'd be going to from the ANBU, the ninja in question were all last seen heading into Mizu no Kuni, possibly to deliver something to the Mizukage.

Therefore, he only had to worry about the 27 other jounins that worked for Yukigakure, most of whom B-rank at most.

Its not like the ANBU could have been wrong, right?

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Up on the mast)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The shinobi with the white haori and long katana felt the brief urge to sneeze, but ignored it.

After all, he needed to keep watch on Squad 9, and make sure he got accurate information on the group of ninja protecting the young woman.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(In the battlefield on the glacier)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Kakashi went for Rouga Nadare as Nadare's two companions went for Yukie, trusting in the ability of his comrades to at the very least delay the kidnapping attempt long enough for him to get back and stop it.

After all, there were three jounin down there, and only one of them was a rookie.

Plus, there were the genin, and there was no way that all ten of them could be useless.

Trading kicks and punches as they ran around the upper portion of the glacier was a lot easier then it had been the last time he had engaged Nadare, he noted.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Team Eight's POV)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The silver haired jounin rushed up the icy cliff to engage the leader of the enemy squad, and the large guy with the squinty eyes came barreling down the cliff on some kind of board that allowed to get some real speed.

The large guy lifted his arm and shot some kind of cord at Yukie-san, but Naruto pulled out some kind of blade with a chain attached and deflected it away back towards the sender.

In other words, the dobe was showing him up again.

There was no way he was going to allow that, not with the way Hinata was looking at the baka as he stood there, glancing around for further threats, periodically glancing back toward the squinty guy who smelled of bad okonomiyaki.

Kiba jumped up into the air and went into his cyclonic spin, crying out the name of his attack as he went for the boarding guy.

"TSUUGA!!"

Spinning through the air as he leapt of the camera crew's platform, nearly upsetting their equipment in the process, he launched himself at the recovering enemy ninja.

The enemy managed somehow to dodge his skillful and shocking assault, using the strange board that had come out of his sandals. That was okay, because he would get him when he rebounded-

WHAM!!

Startled and unprepared for plowing into the snow covering the ice, Kiba went rolling sideways into the cliff, striking it painfully with his back.

As the colors danced across his vision, moving steadily toward black, he heard his teammate Hinata cry out his name.

"Kiba-kun!" She was so sweet...

Shino, looking over at his temporarily downed comrade, commanded his kikai beetles to go forth.

This led to them coming up to his skin, and turning right back around to head toward the warmth in him, which they began to consume.

Shino, cursing himself internally for making such an amateur mistake, then moved himself over to the heater in order to warm back up and rejoin the fight.

Meanwhile, Kurenai rushed forward across the snow, using her more precise knowledge of chakra to figure out the method on which to cross the more difficult terrain. Thank kami she had been on missions to Suna, and knew water walking, or this would have taken longer to figure out.

Stopping in front of the kunoichi in order to block her from getting closer, as Asuma had the snowboarding guy and the genin were ranged around the actress, she began to cast one of her genjutsu, deciding to go for shock factor with the trees.

The light purple haired kunoichi with the strange hat-like hitae-ate smirked, and knelt briefly to touch the snow, sending snow up from the ground that swirled behind her for a moment, before racing forward in the form of birds to attack Kurenai.

"Tsubame Fubumi no jutsu!" The birds of snow rushed toward Kurenai with great speed, to her anyway.

And before she could dodge, they impacted and froze on impact like rain in the winter.

Clumps of ice covered her at irregular intervals, making a distant part of her mind grateful she was wearing a long sleeve sweater and sweat pants under her wrap dress. That part of her was also noting that she should have taken the cloak that was offered, as the snow had wet her cloths before the chakra in the attack caused it to freeze into ice.

As she began to collapse from shivering and hypothermia, she saw the kunoichi raise some kind of ice barrier in front of herself, and the green surrounded her form and she lost consciousness from the relief at the reintroduction of warmth.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Maito Gai's POV)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

As he grabbed the jounin team leader of rookie genin squad 8 he moved immediately into an attack on the kunoichi who had struck her down with the strange snow jutsu.

Kicking through the icicle barrier that the enemy had called, Gai just barely missed getting her with more than the shrapnel, but she jumped straight up and unleashed these strange wing contraptions from her chakra armor.

He could have followed and struck her back down to the ground, but he had a comrade to take care of, so he had to make a choice between the health of a comrade, and the mission.

Luckily, there were others there to pick up were he left off.

A knife attached to a chain pierced through the armor surrounding her striking her in the left hip from the front.

Relieved, he turned briefly to congratulate Tenten on her youthful support...

Only to find that it was Kakashi's student, Uzumaki Naruto, who held the other end of the chain.

Pulling on his kusari-gama, he tried to bring her down, but only ripped the kunai he had stabbed her with free.

"Kuso!" He began to spin the kusari in preparation for the throw in order to trap her (and/or exectue her), but suddenly even more enemies appeared.

These had to be the chuunin squads that were assigned to the command of the enemy jounin squad.

This was not good, as it made an excellent delay tactic on the part of the enemy.

This could only be...

"Cannon fodder ASSAULT!" Naruto declared as he swung the kusari out and slit some throats and beheaded some of the luckier snow nin, as the ones with cuts got frostbite and couldn't even scream.

"TENTEN!" He knew his kunoichi knew what to do.

"HAI!" Leaping into the air she unleashed the barrage of deadly weapons, and felled those who had come, while Neji poked to death those who escaped the deadly shower.

Meanwhile, his most youthful pupil demonstrated his hard work on the rest.

Team 10, under Sarutobi Asuma, was meanwhile doing a most excellent job of detaining someone for interrogation and helping Hinata and her conscious teammates protect the civilians on the boat. Team 8 as stated, was on the boat with civilians, as Gai tossed Kurenai on board into the care of her genin.

As the slaughter wound down, as some of the amateurs revealed themselves...

(Naruto misjudged a swing and merely cleaved a guy's foot off, sending him careening into Tenten's shot to the chest.

The two genin immediately glared at each other.

"You messed up my shot!" Tenten yelled as she picked off another hapless chuunin.

"You took my kill!" Naruto beheaded someone behind him, and then killed the ninja sneaking up on Tenten with kunai headshot!)

As they brought down the last of the chuunin, two gigantic narwhales made of ice and snow rose from the water and crashed into each other, cancelling each other out.

Obviously, Kakashi was doing what he did best, regardless of how unyouthful such an action was.

As the other jounin brought his enemy down, Gai couldn't help the feeling that this had gone a little too well...

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Kakashi's POV)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

After punching Nadare in the face and disorienting him, he began dragging the other jounin over toward the ship.

As he looked over to see everyone wrapping up and heading for the ship he saw a slight glimmer above the mast.

Having a bad feeling about that glimmer, he pulled his hitai-ate back up off his Sharingan, which widened in shock.

To be honest, he could not be blamed for his shock, for heading toward them all...

...was a giant ice dragon.

Wait a moment...

Processing what his eyes were telling him, Kakashi's quick mind recalled one of the more dangerous techniques of the squad he'd been warned about.

Which was an ice dragon attack much flying toward them right now.

If this was what he thought it was, it could take out everybody on the glacier, meaning...

Dropping the deadweight, he launched forward, grabbing his student and Gai's female student, booking it for the ship.

Gai, noticing his ....um...haste... grabbed the other two members of his squad, also booked it for the ship.

Their haste barely got them to safety, as the dragon of ice roared down and hit the glacier behind them, sending the snow in a wave impacting the gate they'd barely raised in time.

Mizore jumped towards the glacier, escaping capture and the ship with interrogating jounin.

The ship sailed away, not risking a second assault from the deadly Squad Zero.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Author's Note)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

....

I apologize for the delay, the fight scene was battling with me for every sentence.

Writer's block struck hard here.

Fortunately, while I was fighting with the fight scene, I did some work on the future plot of the story, which means the next chapter probably won't take as long.

Especially since I won't be quite so busy for a few weeks.

Comments? Suggestions?

Thank you for your patience.


	6. Breaking the Illusion part 2

The Beginnings of Change: Hengesai Naruto

Summary: In a world were Mizuki wasn't evil, and he and Iruka had been training Naruto in secret during his time at the academy, Naruto will realize his true potential, and become the true Henge Master! (Note: I am not that good at summaries.)

Warnings: Sasuke bashing, Sakura bashing, slight Kakashi bashing(increases when in Naruto's POV), possible Harem for Naruto, good Orochimaru (not pedophile!), possible non-Yondaime father. Possible Soul Caliber Crossover, Bleach, Yuyu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Nintendo and Square Enix as well.

Pairings: tentative (Subject to change w/o warning)

Kakaski/Iruka

Mizuki/Wife

Naruto/Harem?

Asuma/Kurenai

Sasuke/Naruto(onesided)

Lee/Sakura(onesided:If Sakura is redeemed, she will return his feelings)

Shikamaru/Temari

Gaara/Matsuri

Sasori/Deidara

Chapter Four: Breaking the Illusion (Part Two)

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(Yuki Nin POV{Various})()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Kakuyoku Fubuki winced as the wound in her hip was rubbed with antiseptic by the medic of Squad Zero. It was not usual that they interacted, but it did happen more often than they interacted with other jounin squads of Yukigakure. After all, Squad 9 fought the groups of ninja that crossed into the territory of Yuki no Kuni without authorization from the Daimyo. And that meant getting hurt sooner or latter.

Squad 0 was to inform the other Squads if an invading group made it past the interception Squad, in other words her and her teammates.

It was so embarrassing when they couldn't handle the groups that came in between themselves.

Especially since they lost all 15 of their chunin backup squad.

Once the medic was finished with her wound, she, Mizore, and Rouga would be meeting up with Daimyo-sama to report what they had found out from the Konoha-nin and the movie crew of that boat.

In the meantime...

"Taicho. The grey-haired ninja was Hatake Kakashi. He's high A rank in the bingo book for his reputation of never failing a mission…"

She could listen to the report Rouga was giving to the Taicho, in order to distract herself from what Vexen-sama was doing to her hip to restore her mobility. After all, what Rouga was telling Taicho was the same as what he was going to report to Daimyo-sama.

"…it is rumored that he is called the Konoha no Midori Yajuu…"

Rouga really needed to stop reading other nations bingo books so much, it really got annoying when he'd throw bits of miscellaneous trivia about enemies into the reports he'd make.

Although, it did make her wonder sometimes where he got some of his information, as some of the stuff was just plain ridiculous. Like…

"….Sarutobi Asuma is pursuing a relationship with Yuuhi Kurenai, who is a genjutsu user who is considered a prodigy…"

The chakra sealed over the healed muscle and bone with new skin. She pulled the hem of her uniform top down and stood up. Saluting, she turned to face her squadmates, and head back in to Yuki in order to report on the invaders to the other Squads.

There was no way she was going to let some stupid little actress take the throne when they had a perfectly decent and effective ruler in Dotou-sama.

Touya watched from beside Hitsugaya-taicho as Squad 9 shunshin-ed away towards the boat that would take them back to Yuki no Kuni so they could report to Daimyo-sama and continue their part of the mission. After all, this wasn't the only squad that was on mission against the rebels and their leader. It would be squad eight's turn while nine was reporting.

And in the meantime, they'd be keeping oversight duty in case there were anymore problems. They couldn't afford to allow Dotou-sama to loose his position when things were finally starting to take a turn for the better for their land and village.

"Touya. Vexen."

"Hmm?"

"Let's go."

And the three vanished from the fractured iceberg, following after the boat carrying the foreign ninjas and the possible usurper.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((In A Bar Somewhere))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"I tell ya man, those guys were fuckin' nuts." The bartender turned to the guy who he was relieving.

"What do you mean? Were they shinobi or something?"

"You should have seen them! They were all wearing the same outfit and hat, and then there was this fog…"

"Dude, this is the rainy season, of course there's fog."

"But the fog was light blue!"

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Kakashi's POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

My little shinobi sits against the wall watching the actress while scanning the rest of the area regularly. I'm so proud that I managed to get one that actually thinks like a ninja even when the threat is not in plain sight. Sasuke is finally starting to pay attention now that it has been made clear that there are hostile forces in the area. Sakura is starting to get the hint that this might be a dangerous occupation.

"It's obvious we'll need to do some scouting to get more information about what's ahead."

I just wish that Kurenai didn't feel the need to state it. If it is obvious, there's no need to go pointing it out.

"Team 7 will scout towards the capitol." Don't want to send the rookie's team towards the stronghold of the enemy, after all. Plus, he wanted to see what else had changed since the information about Yuki no Kuni was gathered.

"Team 8 will head towards Fuyu-cho."

"Team 9 will stay with the ship to guard the civilians."

"Team 10 will go with Team 8."

-Any particular reason- Asuma's hands flashed with a questioning inflection.

-Rookie jounin with just the Aburame as useful backup- Kakashi flashed back flatly.

The brief flash of light across Asuma's eyes was enough answer for him, although the faintly mutinous look to Kurenai was not what he'd call professional. She should be glad that he wasn't making her stay on the ship with Gai, instead of sending her out with Team 10.

Not to mention that she hadn't even caught the talk he'd had with her boyfriend over this.

"Yosh! Such youthful enthusiasm!" Kakashi wasn't sure, but he thought Gai might be a little too perceptive when it came to him, sometimes. There was a glint in his eyes that made Kakashi feel very uncomfortable.

"Well, let's go, Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto." They nodded, and followed him back above deck.

"Ikuzo." And the four of them leapt from the ship to the shore, heading toward the capital of Yuki no Kuni, Hyorin no Sato.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Maito Gai's POV onboard the tiny lifeboat))()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Gai knew that sometimes Kakashi said or did things that frustrated the hell out of his fellow ninja, but he also knew that everything Hatake Kakashi did had more than one reason behind it. 'Underneath the underneath', but taking into account each new level you unearthed, or you'd never come close to full comprehension of his motives.

Gai was sure he'd left his team with the boat because they were the most experienced team on the mission, and thus in a better place to do something like stand guard over a group of civilians in hostile territory.

Coincidentally, he was also sure that only his team had the water-walking exercise down as a whole.

Kurenai-san, as much as she wouldn't want to admit it, didn't have a team prepared to even assist another with such a task. In fact, the safest thing for the mission would be to send her team information gathering in a low risk location, or a medium risk location provided she and her team had back up, or were back up on such an assignment.

Somehow, he didn't think she was quite so in the dark as to not realize that her team was Asuma's back up, instead of the other way around. It would explain the stormy cast of her expression when the eight ninja had headed in the direction of Fuyu-cho as pointed out by the client, Sandayuu-san.

Not to mention the fact that he had probably, maybe overheard Kurenai grumbling to Asuma about the way Kakashi had just assigned them to do things without even asking their opinions.

The movie makers were on the deck of their ship, working on getting things ready for their next filming opportunity, as the producer seemed to call it. Gai would have called it a bloody and arduous battle, but perhaps things were different for filmmakers. Though sometimes civilians seemed to enjoy watching the 'spectacle' that was ninja combat. And Gai did enjoy watching youthful ninja spar with one another in the pursuit of training and improving their skills. However, some civilians seemed to enjoy watching ninja fight to the death instead of the more useful to the point of unconsciousness from youthful striking of the opponent.

However, he was the professional ninja, and they were professional filmmakers. What did he know of what the civilian public wished to see on the screen to allow them some tiny glimpse into the world of youthful battle.

This is why he and his students stood in a tiny boat, Tenten preparing her weapons for the enemy that would soon come in search of their clients, Neji keeping watch in the radius of approach toward the ship, and Lee youthfully warming up for the coming battles.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Squad 8 POV))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

From the cloud of ice crystals, it was easy to keep discrete watch over the intruders vessel. Based on the chakra scans Ami was looking at, all the ninjas had left the ship. Everyone on the boat had civilian level chakra sources.

And two of them were below deck. Those were likely the traitorous samurai Sandayuu, and his pretender to the throne, Fujikaze Yukie, whom it was rumored was the lost princess Kazehana Koyuki.

And it was from her they would need to retrieve the Hexagonal Crystal.

"All is clear, Usagi-taicho."

Usagi smiled at her nakama, and pressed her hand down upon the cloud platform holding them above and to the right of the target's ship, sending a spiral of sparkling ice chakra down into the water surrounding the ship. The ship was frozen in place by the formation of ice platforms.

Now, she, Rei, and Ami just needed to wait for their Youma back up to do their part in securing the civilian invaders.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Youma Back Up aka Squad 8 Chuunin Force))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Takeshi, leader of the chuunin reinforcements of Yukigakure's Jounin Squad Number 8, was bored.

Here they were, following this ship from the floor of the ocean, and keeping watch to see if it was time to launch the strike yet, and what do their jounin comrades do?

They wait. Didn't those kunoichi realize that they could only perform the air recycling exercise for so long at this depth while compensating for the pressure? Sure, it was excellent training, but their only chuunin, not nominated potential jounin candidates.

He himself had at least three more levels of training to go thru before his Squad leaders could nominate him for the Jounin trials.

Now, some of the people who took the trials, nevermind passed them, had been ridiculously young, but they were also overwhelmingly skilled and powerful. The kind of shinobi that could rise above the rest and become the scourge of the battlefields.

Takeshi shuddered briefly as he climbed up the anchor chain to check if it was time to strike. Some of those ninja were not people he wanted to hang out with. The level of danger they represented was difficult to ignore once you'd passed a specific level of training in Yukigakure.

The sudden drop in temperature at the surface of the water snapped him out of his musings. It was time for the operation to commence.

Using the chakra binding them to the ocean floor, and reversing the pull so they were repelled, Takeshi and his fellow Youma ascended to the surface of the waters with great speed. Shooting up out of the water, Takeshi and the others took a moment to breath in some non-recycled air as they rested briefly on Tsukino-taicho's ice platform.

Pulling out their kusari-gama that they had been assigned for the duration of the mission, they leapt up onto the deck of the ship.

Tossing their chains out with practiced skill, they proceeded to capture the startled, gawking civilians. Except for the one with the camera, cause he and the shouting one were just too strange. How the heck were they dodging without even seeming to? Was it some secret skill of the filmmaker?

Yes, that had to be it. Once this mission was over, he would have to do some research on the subject in the Archives.

Wait a moment, what was that over there?

Escapees? Oh well, that will just bring the ninjas back faster for the negotiations to commence. Konoha ninja were never above negotiating to save their clients.

Ah, Tsukino-taicho, Mizuno-san, and Hino-san were coming down to retrieve the two below deck, now. This was good.

After all, he wasn't sure that any of the chuunin would be a match for the former samurai below deck.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((Squad 8 Jounin POV on deck))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Usagi smiled in satisfaction as she dropped down to the deck of the captured ship that had brought the intruders so far into the territory of Yuki no Kuni.

Glancing around, she was proud to confirm that her chuunin squad had managed to swiftly take control of the civilians on the deck of the ship, without doing excessive damage to them. This would be useful for negotiation with their Konoha-nin bodyguard/escorts.

Sort of like saying, really loud and clear, 'See, we haven't hurt them, yet.'

The 'yet' implying that not only can that situation change, but it is in your best interest to cooperate to make sure it doesn't. However, seeing as these were ninja from a major nation, they might not fully grasp those subtleties.

After all, they don't need to pay attention to the minor nations and their ninja anymore, they've gotten into the big leagues.

Ok, so maybe she was a little bitter about the way some of the ninja from the major villages treated the ninja of her village when they came here on legitimate business with the Daimyo.

Of course, they wouldn't be dealing with those arrogant ninja if it weren't for the debts run up by the little actress below decks rumored father.

The treasonous shogun below deck had been known to pull worse in pursuit of keeping the former daimyo on the throne before Dotou-sama had successfully taken over leadership of the nation.

Though, she considered that this might be an excellent opportunity to get rid of the thorn in Dotou-sama's side that Sandayuu was rapidly attempting to become. Leading her fellow jounin below deck toward the remaining two chakra signals, she left Takeshi in charge of the watch to see if any of the ninja squads of Konoha were returning.

"Hmm… it seems they managed to lock the door." Usagi mused out loud as she examined the metal door that led below. She glanced toward her blue haired friend.

"Ami, open it for us please?" She nodded and moved forward to run her fingers along the hinges and locking mechanisms of the door.

The three moved out of the way of the door, as the hinges and lock broke from the pressure applied by the expanding chakra bubbles Ami created inside them. The crash it made as it fell to the deck was actually rather impressive.

Usagi stepped over the fallen door, leading the way below deck to find the missing two members of the passenger manifest.

The steps were illuminated by the light from the open doorway at the top, and they began to head towards the location of the two chakra signals as designated by Ami's scouting visor.

Usagi and Rei kept a look out in case the bastard had managed to close to minimum range sooner than they'd expected. It wasn't like they'd found the schematics or layout of the ship or something equally serendipitous.

Then, she felt a twinge…

And she and Rei stepped back out of the way of the slash of the katana in the hands of the bastard himself. Then, Ami raised her hands, a bubble formed in between them that caught the blade.

And then the bubble exploded and made the blade go back towards its wielder.

The three jounin took up combat stances as the samurai skipped backwards slightly in an attempt to regain his balance. Once he'd regained control of his momentum and stabilized his stance, she knew for sure who it was.

"Well, long time no see, former Shogun Sandayuu-san."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()((AUTHOR"S NOTE))()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Well… it has been a while hasn't it?

Sorry about this, but there was college and the finals and the trips and the upcoming fight scenes that are fighting really hard not to be written but will be anyway…

If you are interested in the reasons behind this delay between chapters, I would put it down to Real Life being a demand when I had the motivation to right, and the ideas disappearing on me when I had the time to write.

Next chapter should be out within a week or so, and will have a major fight scene or two to help make up for the delay.


End file.
